Mini Deep Dish Cheese Pizza!

For those times when you need some pizza from Uno's - but you don't want to go there and get it!

 Taz sayz:  I CAN HAZ PIZZA TONIGHTS 2!?!?!

 

The items you'll need:

4 mini springform pans (recommend kaiser brand)
1 ball of pizza dough
1 - 14 oz. can diced san marzano tomatoes

1 tsp dried oregano

1 clove of garlic

1 jar san marzano tomato basil sauce

a few tbsp butter

salt & pepper

package of shredded mozzarella

chunk of parmesan

"Matt, oh my gosh!  You make your own pizza dough too!?"

  ...Are you kidding me?  It was a Wednesday night after a long day at work - hell no.  Here's what you do:  go to your local pizzeria and ask them for a ball of pizza dough.  Super easy - it was three bucks - and I saved myself hours.  Done! 

Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.  Rub a little olive oil on each "mini ball."  Set that aside to rest for a few while you make the sauce...

In a medium sized pot, simmer the diced tomatoes with the oregano, crushed garlic and some salt and pepper.  After about 10 minutes, strain out some of the watery liquid.  You only want the chunks.  Then I added about 1/2 the jar of tomato basil sauce to give it a little more of a base.  I love that chunky tomato sauce at Uno's!  Keep that on a low simmer while you prep each springform...

Butter each pan - bottom and sides.  This will help the pizza pop right out and help give the crust a buttery flavor!!  Preheat oven to 475!

Now it's time to "pan" the pizza dough!  It should be puffy - there is a lot of air in the dough.  Put the dough quarters in each pan - press down with your fingers so that the dough is on the bottom and comes up the sides.  It takes a little while to work some of the air out and keep the dough up the sides - if you don't press it enough, the sides will want to join the bottom. 

MMMmmm cheese...  such an evil force in the food world. 

 _________  is to Matt as kryptonite is to superman.   Answer: Cheese

OK - put a good amount of mozzarella on each pan of dough.  You want to put more in there than you think... so just load it up!  Then spoon on the chunks of tomato/sauce.  You really want to have more chunks than sauce here.

Using a microplane, grate some of the parmesan on each pan pizza.  Melt a little bit of butter and brush each crust with it - this will help it get golden brown and Paula Deen was on TV - so why not???

Bake for about 10 minutes at 475, then lower temperature to 350 for another 12-15 minutes.

Hopefully, you get something that looks like these!!!  Some more parmesan on top is great too! 

Also - if you want any other toppings on the pizza, just put it on top of the cheese - then tomato chunks on the toppings.

Enjoy!  (an attempt at Uno's pizza... but nothing is like the original!)