Deep Dish Pizza

Add the flour, cornmeal, yeast, and sugar to a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer that has a dough hook attachment. Whisk to combine all of the dry ingredients. Add the water and olive oil and mix with the dough hook or stir with a wooden spoon until all of the ingredients come together to form a dough. If you are not using a stand mixer, grease your hands lightly with oil and use your hands to knead the dough and bring it all together when it becomes too difficult to stir. 

Knead until you have a smooth ball of dough. Lightly grease the sides of the bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let sit for 1 ½ hours until it doubles in size. 

Preheat the oven to 475°.

Lightly grease a nine inch springform pan or cake pan and dust with cornmeal.

Punch the dough down and turn onto a floured work surface. Cut the dough in half so that you have two equal pieces. Use your hands to gently stretch one piece into the shape of a circle that is the size of the pan, try not to overwork the dough when stretching it out. 

Place it in the prepared pan and press outward from the middle to push the dough up onto the sides of the pan to create the deep dish edges.  Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the crust. Add vegetables of choice, cover the mozzarella and vegetables with marinara. If desired, sprinkle the marinara with italian seasoning, sea salt, and crushed red pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the edges of the crust are starting to brown slightly. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife between the edges of the crust and the pan to release the crust from the pan. 

If using a springform pan, release from the pan. If using a cake pan, place a spatula underneath the crust and gently transfer the pizza to a cutting board.

Cut into 6 pieces. 

Use the second crust for another deep dish or a traditional crust.