Dic’za: The Dic Ann’s Pizza

Servings: Medium pizza (6 slices)

Ingredients:

• 1 ball of 450 g pizza dough (can be bought at a bakery, local pizzeria or grocery store, e.g. Pâtes 2000 in the frozen section at Metro)
• 500 g medium-lean ground beef
• ½ red onion
• 2 tsp Montreal Spice (steak spice)
• 1 jar of Dic Ann’s sauce
• 125 g buffalo mozzarella cheese
• 150 g Louis d’Or cheese (or the Gruyère of your choice)
• 1 small bag of cheese curds
• 2 tbsp butter
• 15 slices of pepperoni

Pizza Dough:

• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tsp Fleischmann’s traditional active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cups “00” flour
• 1 tsp salt

Making the Dough:

(If you decide to make homemade dough, use this or any recipe you like):

1. Mix the room-temperature water, yeast and sugar. Let the yeast activate; you will see bubbles appear (about 10-15 minutes)
2. Combine the salt with the flour and mix well
3. Add the yeast liquid to the flour (mixing well with your hands) in small amounts until you get a soft ball
4. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes
5. Set the dough aside in an oiled plastic container so it doesn’t stick (cover with a lid) for 6 hours on the counter or 24 hours in the refrigerator

Meat:

1. Put 2 tbsp of butter in the pan over ¾ heat on the burner and let it melt
2. Cook the 500 g of medium-lean ground meat with ¼ of the red onion.
3. When the fat at the bottom of the pan is almost dry, let the meat cook and add 2 tsp of “Montreal Spice”-style seasoning (steak spice)
4. Let the meat brown, stirring well. Watch and listen: the meat will sizzle and slowly stick to the bottom of the pan.
5. When the meat is well browned, add ¼ of the jar of Dic Ann’s sauce to the meat and let it reduce until dry.
6. Once dry, add another ¼ of the jar of sauce and reduce until dry a second time.
7. Keep the meat aside off the heat for 30 minutes.

Assembling the Dic’za:

1. Put a pizza stone in the oven for 1 hour at 550 degrees F, or if you don’t have a pizza stone, set the oven to 425 degrees F convection if possible (bake about 12 minutes or follow the instructions on your dough)
2. Reduce the remaining half of your jar of Dic Ann’s sauce over medium heat for 20 minutes until it thickens
3. Stretch out the pizza dough
4. Cover the whole dough with hot Dic Ann’s sauce
5. Spread the meat over the sauce-covered dough
6. On top of the meat, place the thinly sliced Louis d’Or cheese, the cheese curds and the buffalo mozzarella
7. Add raw red onions to taste and/or pepperoni on top
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes (or according to your dough’s instructions) until the crust and cheese are golden

By Marc-André Fortier