Chicago "Meat-Lover's" Deep-Dish Pizza

2 1/2 to 3 cups - Your favorite marinara, pizza or spaghetti sauce

28 oz. - Pizza Dough Ball

8 2.5 oz - Italian, onion or herbed meatballs, browned

1 lb - Sweet Italian sausage, cut into 8 links, browned

8 slices - Genoa Salami

8 slices - Prosciutto or Capacola

8 slices - Bacon, cooked

8 slices - Pepperoni, large

1 medium - Red or yellow onion, sliced into 1/4" rings, raw

1 to 1 1/2 cups - White mushrooms, sliced or quartered, sauté optional

1 cup - Colossal black olives, whole or halved

1 1/2 to 2 tbsp - Fresh garlic, minced

1 tbsp - Italian seasonings: oregano, basil, sage, savory, marjoram, thyme, rosemary

1/4 cup - Parmesan cheese, fine freshly grated

2 cups - Mozzarella cheese, grated

Form the dough:

Roll out a 28 oz. ball of pizza dough into an 18" round and 3/8" thick circle. Form into a deep-dish pizza pan, allowing the edges of the dough circle to droop over the top cutting edge of the baking pan.

(Important: Fill the dough shell with the ingredients before trimming the crust edge so that the dough does not slip down into the vertical pan wall and become uneven!)

Assembling the Deep-Dish Pizza:

Pour half of the sauce into the dough shell and spread evenly over the bottom.

Arrange the meats uniformly around the bottom of the pan.

Lace the vegetables over the meats.

Sprinkle over with garlic and seasonings.

Layer the Mozzarella cheese evenly over the filling.

Top by dribbling the remaining sauce over the cheese layer, then sprinkle with the Parmesan.

Now, trim away away the excess dough drooping from the pan edge, leaving a uniform crust edge.

Baking and serving:

Bake pizza in a pre-heated oven at 300°F - 325°F on the middle rack until mixture bubbles and dough crust is medium brown, (45 to 55 minutes).

When done, let cool to set up a little while then slip from pan onto a large cutting board.

The pizza can be cut into slices or served whole in the pan as is often done.

Serves 4-8 hungry meat-lovers.