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Jul 18, 2017 | Main Course Recipes | by Jennifer

Cast Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza

Name: Cast Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza
Prep time: 80 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 3/4 cup warm water; 1 Tbsp. instant or active dry yeast; 1/4 cup cornmeal; 1 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour; 2 Tbsp. olive oil; 1 Tbsp. honey (or sugar); 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes (in juice); 2 Tbsp. olive oil; 1 small onion (finely diced); 1 clove garlic (finely chopped); 3 to 4 fresh basil leaves; 1 tsp. dried oregano; Pinch salt; Pinch fresh ground black pepper; Pinch sugar; 1 1/2 (10oz/284g) balls Mozzarella cheese (cut in 1/2-inch thick slices); 4 8-inch Hot or Mild Italian sausage links (casing removed, crumbled and cooked); 1/2 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (for topping ); 5-6 fresh basil leaves (chopped)

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This Cast Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza is filled with cheese and sausage and uses a quick and easy homemade dough, all cooked up in a cast iron skillet!

I first posted this recipe back in 2014 and it’s still my husband’s favourite :) Since I was making it for him again this past weekend, I took the opportunity to update the photos and do a quick video of it coming together in my kitchen. If you haven’t tried it yet, I do hope you get a chance to try it. It’s a great pizza!

If you were to ask my husband, there would be no question that he would pick this as his favourite pizza. Oh sure, he eats my thin-crust prosciutto, goat cheese and arugula pizza and I think he likes it well enough. But this pizza – this is the one he really loves. I know that because he tells me that each and every time I make it.

I can hardly blame him. What’s not to love? Layers of cheese, sausage and bacon, topped off with a great pizza sauce and Parmesan cheese. It’s luscious, even to thin-crust, gourmet pizza loving people like me. Think of this one as an upside down pizza, as the cheese is on the bottom, followed by the meat and then topped with the sauce. While you may be tempted to put mozzarella on the top, trust me, a dusting of Parmesan is all you need, as there is plenty of cheese inside this one.

The crust on this one is different from my usual pizza crust. First, it has cornmeal in it, with gives it great flavour and texture. It cooks up to a crisp layer on the outside, but soft and a little more bread-like on the inside. As for the sauce, I’ve included a recipe for homemade sauce, but you can (and I often do) use store-bought pizza sauce. You’ll need about 1 1/2 cups of pizza sauce, or enough to make a generous top layer of sauce.

This dough is also a nice quick-rise dough, so you don’t need to start it many hours ahead. In fact, if you start an hour out, you can make the sauce and cook the meats while the dough rises. Quickly assemble the pizza once the dough has risen for the hour and pop it in to the oven for 35-40 minutes. Once baked, this pizza is sturdy enough to be able to pop the whole thing nicely and easily out of the skillet and on to a cutting board.

Cook’s Notes for Cast Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza

The amount of dough in the recipe below is perfect for a 10-inch top diameter skillet. It’s the perfect amount for a 10-inch skillet. If your skillet is larger, it will still work, but be a little thinner, so cooking time may be a bit less.

The crust on this deep dish pizza is a special, thick, almost bread-like crust, so it isn’t your typical pizza dough. It’s perfect with the hearty fillings and part of what makes this dish sliceable :) As such, while you could use a ready-made pizza dough in place of this one, it will cook and taste differently and may not hold up as well with all the fillings.

Be sure to cut your mozzarella cheese in thick slices – 1/2 inch or so – to get the full, ooey gooey, melted cheese experience.

If you’d like even more meat, a layer of pepperoni slices above the cheese is a nice addition (or salami, ham etc.)

Watch my Skillet Deep Dish Pizza come together! (Audio)

Don’t have a cast-iron skillet yet?

Here’s a great one to get you started. It’s pre-seasoned, the perfect size for so many dishes, not too heavy and great quality. It will last you a lifetime!

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