Greek Style Deep Dish Pizza

A few weeks ago, I complained that rabbits or squirrels were eating our strawberries just as they started to become ripe, before we could enjoy them. Well today, Brett rescued this little critter in our yard from a neighbor's cat's jaws.

Before everyone says, "awwwww, look at the baby rabbit", just remember, rabbits can be killers! Here's a scientific documentary proving that.



Even still, Alexis wouldn't let me make rabbit stew so we had to have something else for dinner. (Don't worry just joking, he/she is recovering fine and will be released back in our garden tomorrow morning.)

This is one that Alexis and I made up a few weeks ago (April 20th to be exact per my notebook) when she decided she wanted to try a deep dish style pizza. We looked at what ingredients we had on hand and decided to take it Greek style. It wasn't authentic Greek food, but it had a lot of Greek flavors.

We made it again tonight but this time made it in the brick oven....errr Big Green Egg. As I've mentioned a million times over, the Egg's ceramics make it the perfect wood fired cooker for pizzas. But this recipe does work well in both an oven or on a ceramic cooker.
Greek Style Deep Dish Pizza
Source: Nibble Me This

Ingredients
1 order pizza dough (make your own, buy from local pizza joint or buy a mix from store)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato pesto
6 ounces mozzarella, shredded
8-10 slices salami, quartered
2 slices red onion
4-6 ea kalamata olives, sliced
1/4 cup portobello mushroom, diced and sauteed
8-10 ea mint leaves, fresh, chopped
4-5 ea marinated artichoke hearts, diced
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Instructions
Roll pizza dough out and form it into a greased 9" round dish. This will work with a cake pan but does really well with a preheated stoneware pan. Poke the dough all over with a fork. Alexis tells me that will help keep the dough from bubbling up during the pre-cook. She knows the baking stuff way better than I (See? we complement each other!). Place the pan/dough into a 475f Big Green Egg or oven for 5 minutes.

Spread the tomato pesto on the base of the pizza and top with the mozzarella. We used Classico's Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto that you can find in most grocery stores but you could make your own, there's a lot of recipes available via a quick google.

Then toss in the next six ingredients (salami, onions, olives, mushroom, mint, and artichoke....don't you hate when recipes make you count?).

Top with the feta cheese and put back on the Big Green Egg or in the oven, still at 475f and cook for 12 minutes.

Pull from the cooker and let rest in the pan for another 5 minutes.

You should be able to lift the entire pan using a pair of large spatulas.

Slice and serve. Damn good stuff.

Both times this has been one of our favorite pizzas. It might not be pretty but the flavors pack a punch that wakes your mouth up. The strong flavors of the feta, olives, peppers, and other ingredients walk that fine line between making your mouth water and making your eyes wince.

Time for a quick game of Versus in the comments:
1) Deep dish vs. regular pizza
2) Monty Python rocks vs. Monty Python sucks (don't worry about offending me, I love MP, Alexis hates them).