Several months ago I made my first two deep dish pizzas, and although they were fantastic, they left me wanting something more. Since it was my first time making deep dish pies, I thought I would just follow the topping suggestions in the original recipe and save the experimenting until the next time. I made a sausage pizza and an olive and ricotta pizza, but what I really wanted was to recreate my go-to deep dish from when I lived in Chicago: a Lou Malnati’s spinach pizza. Six months later, I finally made it happen. While it wasn’t as perfect as the real deal, it was a worthy attempt. I will be making this one again and again once I emerge from my deep dish food coma.
There are links in the ingredient list below to my original deep dish pizza post where you’ll find the dough and sauce recipes. The original recipe makes two pizzas, which I followed and made a sausage pizza along with this spinach one. I’m sure you can cut the recipe in half to make a single pizza, but I think if you’re going to the effort of making one pizza you might as well make two.
Spinach + Tomato Deep Dish Pizza
- 1/2 recipe deep dish pizza dough
- 1/2 recipe pizza sauce (or about 2 cups of your favorite pizza sauce)
- 1/2 pound mozzarella, grated (about 2 cups)
- 8-10 ounces fresh spinach
- 2-3 Roma tomatoes
- 1/4 cup fresh ricotta (optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan
Making the Pizza
- Start by preparing the dough and the sauce according to the directions in this post. While the dough is on its second rise in the refrigerator, get the fillings ready.
- Before I started on the pizza dough, I actually made a batch of fresh ricotta. Adding ricotta (fresh or store-bought) to the pizza is completely optional, but I have a lot of free time and I love making cheese, so I went for it.
- Heat a tiny bit of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the spinach.
- Cook, stirring a few times, until the spinach wilts. I added some red pepper flakes, mostly because I get impatient while standing there and impulsively throw things into the pan. I think I added some salt and pepper, too.
- Cut the tomatoes into 1/4″ thick slices.
- Once the dough has risen for about 35 minutes in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 425. Oil a 9″ cake pan with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil.
- After 45 minutes of rising, remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it into a 13″ disc. Transfer the dough to the cake pan, pressing it into the corners and up the sides.
- Fill the bottom of the dough with the mozzarella. All of it. One-half pound of mozzarella is obscene, and it will look like a lot of cheese. It is, but it will taste good.
- The spinach goes on next.
- Then the tomatoes.
- Then the sauce.
- Then dollops of ricotta. Alternatively, you could do the ricotta before the sauce so you don’t have to worry about bits of ricotta browning in the hot oven.
- And finally, a sprinkling of parmesan
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack, and wait 10 minutes before slicing.
