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The Hoard

Everything the raiders brought back. Onion, green pepper, mushroom, black and green olives.

Makes

One 10-inch deep dish, 6 wedges

Hands on

30 min

All in

5 h 30

Oven

230 °C (450 °F)

What you need

• 3 cups (750 ml)all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (250 ml)water, warm
• 2 tbsp (30 ml)olive oil, plus more for the pan
• 1 tsp (5 ml)instant yeast
• 1½ tsp (7 ml)salt
• 1 cup (250 ml)tomato sauce
• 2 cups (500 ml)mozzarella, shredded
• ½onion, sliced thin
• ½green pepper, sliced
• 1 cup (250 ml)mushrooms, sliced
• ⅓ cup (80 ml)black and green olives, sliced

How it goes

1. 1

   Mix the flour, yeast and salt, then the warm water and oil. Stir to a shaggy dough — no kneading. Cover and leave it on the counter 4 hours, or in the fridge overnight.

2. 2

   Oil a 10-inch cast iron skillet generously — more than feels right. That oil is what fries the bottom crust, which is the entire difference between this and a pizza on a tray.

3. 3

   Press the dough out to the edges of the pan with oiled fingers. If it fights back, leave it 15 minutes and try again. Let it rise in the pan 45 minutes.

4. 4

   Cheese first, right out to the pan wall — it fuses to the edge and fries into the crisp rim. Then the sauce in spoonfuls, then everything else. Deep dish goes in the opposite order to a thin pizza, or the toppings sink and the middle goes wet.

5. 5

   Bake at 230 °C (450 °F) on the lowest rack for 22–26 minutes, until the cheese is browning in patches and the edge has pulled away crisp and golden. Slide a spatula under and look — the bottom should be fried, not pale.

6. 6

   Let it sit 5 minutes before cutting, then lift the whole thing out onto a board. Cutting in the pan ruins both the pizza and the pan.

A couple of things

• Cheese under the sauce is not a typo. It is the Chicago order and it is why the middle holds.
• Squeeze the mushrooms dry in a towel first. They carry more water than anything else on here.

Contains : wheat, milk