Double Decker Pizza
Why put 2 pizzas on top of each other? Why not? This is an interesting twist on what I thought up during lockdown, originally as a way to use up the rest of the existing ingredients I had.
What you can do with it is layer on different flavors and toppings so if you want on to have all meat, the other veggies, go for it. Want two types of cheeses to give an interesting taste profile? Go for it! Want to switch up the sauces so you can a sweet ‘n savory, sweet n’ smoky? Its right there.
What I’m showcasing here is a base template which you can switch in and out at will. Note that baking times will vary according to crust, and your preference. I personally like a more sturdy slice, so I’ll bake it just a bit longer, but if you like yours chewy, you can switch it up.
Ingredients
2 crusts: ideally, they should be the same brand so that baking times should be even. Though if you use 2 different flavored crusts from the same brand, that’s fine, the baking times should be within 5 minutes of each other.
1 jar of pizza sauce. You can also use canned tomato sauce, then sprinkle your own seasonings if you wish, but I’m keeping it simple for the template. If you got a larger crust, may need 2, though you’ll probably just use 1.5 jars.
Toppings: I personally like to use Italian sausage. You can use just a half pound for each layer, or the full pound if you like a meaty slice. For veggies, I’m a fan of onion, garlic and spinach, I would read up on your vegetable’s baking time to be sure.
Cheese: I’m going rogue here by using sliced cheese. Why? So it melts evenly, will act as a nice, sticky anchor for the toppings.
How to Cook
Prep:
Preheat the oven to your crusts instructions. In the meantime, if you have to cook raw meats like I do, you can get started with that.
For Italian sausage:
I use butter vs cooking oil as A)It has a cleaner profile B) it gets to the smoke temperature faster (that’s when you see smoke coming from the pan) C) it doesn’t splash. The butter I use is Costco’s Kirkland New Zealand butter, or Kerry Gold’s Irish Salted.
Take 1 tablespoon and wait for the smoke temperature, cooking on high.
Once you have the smoke temperature, take the Italian sausage out of the packaging. Since we’re not doing patties, you can take it out into portions, we’ll be breaking them up with the spatulas.
Once the smoke temperature is reach, put on medium heat and put the meat. Cook 10-15 minutes (Yes, we’re cooking it first before baking, as while it seem it would be a good idea to half fry, half bake, let’s not get food poisoning, shall we?)
With the spatulas, pick and fluff them until they spread throughout the pan. The more its cooked, the easier it will be.
Do a a sort of tilling motion back and forth to get all the raw parts exposed. Do this every few minutes or so until you all the meat is browned. For some of the bigger chunks, take the spatula to get a cross section and see if its still pink. With sausage, we don’t want that, so till it again.
Once the sausage is browned, the oven should be at the desired temperature. In my case, it was 400.
The Pizza
Take the crust out of the packaging, putting on a plate, cutting board.
For Both layers, we’re going to add the sauce and cheese. (I’ll note for my case, I used a focaccia that already had roasted tomatedsand cheese, so its a nice bonus.)
I’m more of a pour-it-until-I-think-its good, but for measurements sake, I used four tablespoons, then spread it around.
For the sliced cheese, I used four slices each.
Add the sausage to taste, then stack. Again, 1 half pound should do it, use the whole thing for a meaty experience (or you can do like a sandwich and put the meat on the bottom and veggies on top)
For mine specifically, only a half pound could fit. Also for my crusts, one of them was a bit uneven, so I put that layer on top. This won’t be an issue if you use either name brand, or store brand crusts.
For baking time, take the crusts instructions, then add 50 percent more, in my case, it was 13 minutes, half of that was 6.5, so it would be 19. I did 20 just to keep things even.
Turn oven off, open the door, let sit for 10-15 minutes. Its going to be even hotter in the in middle, want to give it time to solidify.
After taking out, the challenge will be how to cut. For mine, the pizza cutter could not go all the way, so I went with my bread knife.
The layers may ‘rock’ a bit, make sure you have a steady hand when cutting. Since mine was done in a flatbread style, I went for a horizontal cut at first, then cut it vertical.
The Last Slice
As you can see, the 1st layer is almost like a calzone/lasagna, but with more volume.
As for servings, remember you’re essentially cooking 1 pizzas, so just 1 should do it, 2 if you’re starving. For mine, the flavors of pepper jack, Italian sausage, along with the foccasias roasted tomato and cheese was full bodied as I tasted it in that order. The pepper jack was bold, with the Italian sausage giving it a slight crunch with a touch of herb, with the foccacias flavors finishing it off.
So that’s the basic template. Its a fresh, weird, but interesting take that should shake things up in your household.
What's Your Take?
I’d love to hear and see your versions of Double Decker Pizza. Will you use two thin crusts? 2 types of sauces? Put a ghostpepper or other type of hot sauce?