Not-So Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza (& other pizza/calzone variations)
written by Kelly Bauer
Meal planning often gets pushed to the back burner when preparing for a trip. However, with a little encouragement, research and creativity you can create delicious meals and begin to leave the freeze-dried food at home.
These recipes are inspired by the Nols Cookery cook book, too much time in the backcountry and many rounds of trial and error. Enjoy!
With a Stove 
Rising Crust:
- 1 tsp dry yeast
- ½ cup lukewarm water
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup flour
Sauce:
- 1 Tbs dried onion
- 1 Tbs dried green and red pepper
- 1 ½ cup water
- 4-6 Tbs. tomato paste
- ½ tsp oregano/basil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ to ½ tsp garlic
Optional Ingredients:
- Wild onions
- Bacon bits
- TVP (texturized vegetable protein)
- Summer sausage
- Last night’s leftovers
- Cheese!
Cooking Instructions:
- Add yeast to warm water with sugar and salt. Water should be warm enough to hold finger in for eight seconds no longer. Slowly add to flour in a bag and knead until flour no longer sticks to side of bag.
- Re-hydrate onion and peppers in about ½ cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes or until soft. Stir in remaining ingredients and then gradually add last cup of water. Continue stirring until heated through.
- Oil or butter a fry pan and spread dough in pan to form a crust. Turn up edges of dough to create “deep dish” pizza.
- Spread sauce over crust and add additional toppings
- Cover and bake, turning pan often until crust is golden brown
Calzone:
- A calzone requires all the same ingredients but you only cover half the dough surface with ingredients and fold it over to make a calzone.
Cooking over Fire
- With a pan: Place your pan on coals away from the fire, the coals should glow when you blow on them but not flame. Place more coals on top of the lid to “bake” the pizza. Rotate often and be sure to check that you are not burning your crust.
- One of my favorite ways to cook is directly on the coals, it requires more attention but the final pizza is worth it. (Make sure that the area you are camping in allows open fire). Make your dough without yeast and roll it out with a Nalgene on top of your Ziploc bag. Be sure to add spices like garlic to the dough. Place the dough directly on the coals. The coals should glow when you blow on them but not light. The dough will cook quickly so watch for hot coals and flip often with a leather glove or oven mitt. Once the dough is cooked move to cooler coals and spread your toppings evenly. Cook until sauce is hot. This creates a delicious flatbread style pizza.
