Crave Wednesday: Deep Dish Pizza

As one of the perks from being a Fit Foodie Ambassador I got sent the Crave Cookbook by Cooking Light.

A whole cookbook filled with foods that make you go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  I used to be a Cooking Light junkie, never meeting a Cooking Light recipe I didn't like. But it's been a while since I've made a recipe from the magazine, or my Cooking Light cookbook.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to go back.  Especially with foods like pizza, burgers, sandwiches, and desserts. 

So for the next 4 months or so I'm going to be featuring recipes from the book.  But not today.  Today, as an introduction to the pizza chapter I'm featuring a recipe inspired by our trip to Chicago - deep dish pizza.  There are deep dish pizza recipes in the cookbook, and trust me, you'll see them, but this is kind of my own version.  Version 1.0?  It's a totally decadent style of pizza, really focusing on the filling as opposed to the crust.  And the filling is completely worth it. It has the toppings from the pizza we had on our Chicago trip - sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, and mushrooms.  "Everything."  A great Non-light version before we dive into the healthier versions.

Deep Dish Pizza

Pizza dough

Marinara sauce
1 tsp olive oil
8 oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
4 ounces pepperoni, thinly sliced
4 ounces mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
1/2 green bell pepper,sliced
1 onion, sliced
8 oz crumbled hot Italian sausage
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 475. Use the olive oil to grease a 12 inch cake pan.  Press the pizza dough into the cake pan, as though you were making a pie, so the dough comes up the sides of the cake pan.
2. Top the dough with mozzarella cheese. 
3. Top the cheese with the pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and sausage.
4. Spoon as much sauce as you like over the pizza  (we like ours saucy)
5. Top the sauce with the grated parmesan and bake 30 minutes.