Illinois

"What makes it a Chicago Style pizza, is it riddled with bullet holes?" This from my British friend, whose retro-Mafia view of the Windy City certainly makes for good pizza imagery. I don't know if the heavy crust and toppings that Pizzaria Uno made famous have any actual Mafia connections, but it might make a good story.

This Illinois dinner was a no-brainer for us; for life-long midwesterners, Chicago-Style pizza is legendary. Marc was on kitchen duty for this meal and he started with a good crust recipe, found here. He halved the recipe and this yielded two pizzas, one 10 inch and one 8 inch.


The cheese always goes on the bottom of a Chicago-Style pizza, and sliced (rather than shredded) mozzarella is preferred. The topping choices are endless--sausage is a classic, but any variety of vegetables works too. We stuck with plain cheese this time.

For the sauce, the ideal is simply crushed, high quality canned tomatoes. Marc squished these up using a pastry cutter.


After a good thick layer of crushed tomatoes is spread over the cheese, top with oregano and fresh grated Parmesan

Lucy oversees the application of oregano and parmesan.

These bake in a 475 degree oven for about 30 minutes. We lightly buttered the cast iron pans, so that the pizza easily lifted out and onto a cutting board. A filling Friday night meal, appropriately accompanied by a good Chicago brew:

Cheers!

Next stop: Washington