Recipe: Chicago Pizza Oven and Grinder Company Pizza Pot Pie .

CHICAGO PIZZA OVEN AND GRINDER COMPANY PIZZA POT PIE
Source: Copycat Message Boards
Yield: 4 as main course

Located just across the way from the site of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, on North Clark Street, the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. makes one of the most unusual variations of pizza that the city has to offer- Pizza Pot Pie, or Upside-Down Pizza.

The owners, Charles Smital and Albert Beaver, had been serving pizza in a pan until one night when Beaver got the idea for Pizza Pot Pie. After much experimentation, the partners developed a new perspective on pizza. They began to make it upside-down. They even had ovenproof bowls specially made to their specifications.

When the pizza goes into the oven, it resembles a crust-covered deep-dish pot pie, but when it is done, the waiter detaches the crust from the bowl and deftly flips it over at your table. Viola! Upside-down pizza pot pie!
Now the Recipe

PIZZA POT PIES are fun to prepare, but they can be tricky to handle. I would propose making 4 individual sized ones. (Those ovenproof onion soup bowls tucked away in nearly everyone's cupboard make perfect containers)

All of the pie's filling components except the cheese are cooked together in a thick sauce. That sauce is spooned in first, followed by a layer of mozzarella cheese and a cap of dough over all. The pies are baked until crisp, and then they are flipped over to reveal pizza. Do practice before you serve pizza pot pie to guest. Flipping hot pies may be fun, but it can also be messy.

1 recipe Basic Pizza Dough, ready to use
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound uncooked ground beef or sweet or hot Italian sausage meat
(removed from casings and crumbled)
1 medium-sized sweet onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium-sized sweet green pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed, and chopped
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, roughly crushed
3 ounces canned tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano or dried basil
2 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 pound mozzarella, thinly sliced
Vegetable oil for bowls

Prepare a recipe for pizza dough and let it rise in the refrigerator for 1-1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees for 60 minutes.

Prepare the sauce while the dough is rising.

Heat to teaspoons of the olive oil in a medium-sized non-aluminum saucepan. Add the meat and cook it until it is no longer pink. Remove the meat and Drain off the fat.

Heat the to remaining teaspoons of olive oil in the same saucepan and saut the onion and green pepper until the onion is just translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the saut ed meat, tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano,
parsley, and salt and pepper. Stir and simmer, uncovered, for 45 to 60 minutes. Stir from time to time to prevent burning. 7. Oil 4 1- to 1-1/2-cup ovenproof bowls, inside and out. Oil a baking sheet.

Spoon the cooked sauce into each bowl, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space at the top of each bowl. Lay the mozzarella over the sauce in each bowl.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator, punch it down, and divide it into 4 pieces. Roll each piece out with a rolling pin until it is just large enough to hang over the bowl's edge by 2 inches.

Set the bowls on the oiled baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The dough is done when the crust is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

To serve, put a dinner plate on top of the dough, and with oven mitts protecting your hands, quickly invert the pie. Loosen the dough all around the edge with a knife before removing the bowl. The pies can also be served in their bowls without inverting them. Let each person break through the crust to get to the filling-just as they would with another type of pie.

NOTE: The dough is refrigerator risen so that it will be stiff when it is rolled out. When the dough is too soft, it can slip and expand too much on the bowl.