Deep Dish Pizza

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 (1/4 ounce) packet active instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans whole tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons fresh basil
• 2 teaspoons salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 4 fresh garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 tomato

Recipe

• 1 to make the crust, combine the yeast, salt, sugar, 1 cup of the flour and the cup of warm water. mix thoroughly.
• 2 since you aren't proofing the yeast first, the water needs to be a bit hotter than usual.
• 3 add enough of the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour to form a soft dough.
• 4 knead it for a few minutes, then put it back in the bowl, cover and set aside to rise.
• 5 in the meantime, prepare the veggies.
• 6 saute the onions in some red wine until caramelized.
• 7 squeeze the moisture out of the thawed spinach.
• 8 break up the tomatoes slightly and set them in a sieve to drain. you don't want them soupy.
• 9 save the juice for something else.
• 10 when the pizza dough has more or less doubled in bulk (usually in less than. an hour- i find you don't need to be too technical with pizza dough), punch it down.
• 11 lightly spray a 10 inch spring form pan with cooking spray.
• 12 press the dough into the pan and up the sides.
• 13 spread the shredded cheese over the crust.
• 14 top with the tomatoes which have been mixed with the basil leaves.
• 15 season with the salt, oregano and black pepper.
• 16 sprinkle the minced garlic over the tomatoes, then the add the sauteed onions.
• 17 top the onions with the spinach and then arrange the sliced tomato decoratively on top.
• 18 bake at 425°f in the middle of the oven for about 45 minutes or so.
• 19 since it's so thick, it takes quite awhile for the filling to heat all the way through.
• 20 it makes a lovely presentation when you remove the ring from the springform pan.
• 21 the fillings i used are what i happened to have around the house.
• 22 you can use anything you wish.
• 23 i think artichokes, mushrooms, eggplant, roasted peppers and brocolli would be especially good.
• 24 i was quite pleased with the way the healthy choice fake cheese melted.
• 25 recently, i tried the kraft fat-free singles (sharp cheddar flavor) and found them to be as good as any full fat processed cheese slice (for what that's worth).
• 26 they melted well as part of a burrito filling.