You know Chicago deep‑dish pizza. Now meet its slimmer, crunchier sibling. The trick for making an ideal Chicago Thin-Crust Pizza—a thin, crisp alternative to its doughy cousin—at home was to make the dough in a food processor. Because of the high speed of the blade, the processor brought the dough together quickly, which prevented too much gluten from forming and kept the crust crisp. A no-cook tomato sauce—a combination of canned tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, and dried spices—and shredded mozzarella sprinkled all the way to the outer edges covered the dough. And finally, we baked the pizza until the edges were crisp and dark, ensuring a version so authentic, you may think you’re in the Windy City.
Notes
Using cold water keeps the dough from overheating in the food processor. A pizza peel is the best tool for moving the pizza in and out of the oven, but you can also use a rimless baking sheet.
Ingredients
Pizza dough
- 12½ ounces all-purpose flour - 2½ cups
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1½ teaspoons instant yeast - or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅞ cup cold water - ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- cornmeal - for sprinkling on the peel
Toppings
- 12 ounces sweet Italian sausage - casings removed
- 12 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese - shredded, 3 cups
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Sauce
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
Instructions
Make the dough
- Process flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a food processor until combined, about 3 seconds.
- With the processor running, slowly add cold water and oil and process until dough forms a sticky ball that clears the sides of the bowl, 30 to 60 seconds.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled counter and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Shape dough into a tight ball and place in a greased bowl.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until almost doubled in size, 2 to 2½ hours.
- One hour before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, set baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees.
Make the sauce
- Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
Form the pizza
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter, divide in half, and gently shape each half into a ball.
- Return 1 dough ball to bowl and cover with plastic.
- Coat the remaining dough ball lightly with flour and gently flatten it into an 8-inch disk using your fingertips.
- Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12‑inch circle, dusting dough lightly with flour as needed. (If the dough springs back during rolling, let rest for 10 minutes before rolling again.)
- Sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal.
- Transfer dough to the prepared pizza peel and carefully stretch to return to a 12-inch circle.
Top the pizza
- Using the back of a spoon or ladle, spread scant ½ cup sauce in a thin layer over the surface of the dough, leaving a ⅛-inch border around the edge.
- Pinch 6 ounces sausage into approximate dime-size pieces and evenly distribute over the sauce.
- Sprinkle 1½ cups mozzarella evenly over sausage to edge of pie.
- Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon oregano over the top.
Bake and serve
- Carefully slide pizza onto the baking stone and bake until cheese is well browned and edges of the pizza are crisp and dark, 10 to 14 minutes.
- Slide pizza peel underneath pizza and remove pizza from oven.
- Slide pizza onto cutting board and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, sauce, sausage, mozzarella, and oregano.
- Cut pizzas into 2- to 3-inch squares and serve.