Strap yourselves in for this one, it’s big. There’s some 15g carbs for the whole thing, but it’s still very calorically dense, that said, you wont be able to eat much until you’re near bursting! So let’s get straight into it.
Recipe: Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza
Yield: 6 Serves
Cooking Time: ~60 Minutes
Ingredients
- 600g Shredded Cheese
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Cups Almond Meal
- 2 Italian Pork Sausages (290g)
- 100g Salami
- Mushrooms
- Tomato Sauce
Strap yourselves in for this one, it’s big. There’s some 15g carbs for the whole thing, but it’s still very calorically dense, that said, you wont be able to eat much until you’re near bursting! So let’s get straight into it.
For the record, I’ve only had this once and that was a few years ago at on of the Giordano’s in Chicago. I understand that, typically, there’s a layer of dough between the cheese and tomato sauce, but I skipped that.
Step 1: Crust
Place three cups of cheese into the microwave for about 90 seconds,
Mix in the two eggs and almond meal, and it will turn into this unfortunate looking blob.
Really, really, really keep mixing it though, to make sure everything has spread through evenly.
Step 2: Moulding Crust
Throw the blob into a springform pan. Yes, I used this for a pizza before I used it for a cheesecake.
Push the mixture out and up the sides of the pan. You can use your hands, or a knife for this step, whichever you prefer, I found using both was the best way to get the job done.
Step 3: Precook
Place this into an oven on at least 220ºC for 20 minutes or so. It’s worth checking regularly. It will eventually look like this, don’t worry about the edges coming away from the sides.
Step 4: Layers
It’s time for the best part, the meat. I used two, fresh from the butcher, italian pork sausages. Cut or break them up into little pieces, and spread across the crust.
And a Salami layer on that
Then some mushroom because mushrooms are awesome, potassium rich little bastards they are. Plus they’ll absorb fat from meat and cheese. Delightful.
And, the pièce de résistance, the cheese. In no uncertain terms, fill it up.
Finally, a Tomato layer. I used minced tomatoes and just added salt, but you could use a pre-made pasta sauce if you were so daring, just beware of carbs. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over the top.
Step 5: Bake
Set your oven to 180ºC, and place the pizza on the middle or lower rack, and allow it to cook for 45 minutes or more. Just check it ever now and again until it looks like this.
On a few spots, the crust was a little burnt, but the net result negates it entirely.
I went with a pretty typical filling, and if I could change anything, I would have put bacon in there, or maybe some green peppers. Because sometimes, I do feel that I need to eat more vegetables.
Ermahgerd crers sectern
Hey Aaron! So I’m from CT, and being a New Englander I’m pretty serious about pizza, and firmly in the NY style thin crust pizza camp. That being said, this looks amazing and I’m definitely going to have to try it! ASAP! Don’t tell anyone I admitted it though!
Sensational. I’m yet to satisfactorily recreate a thin crust pizza
To do a thin crust pizza get Flatout wraps, they make an Italian ones that re 6 net carbs. Brush them with olive oil and pre-bake them a few minutes so they start to get crispy. Then top with sauce, cheese and topping and toss it back in the oven until cheese is melted.
Ah I wish, not available in Australia unfortunately. We have something similar called Mountain Bread though, but it seems the lowest carb one that I can eat (wheat intolerant) is 13.2g, not bad really!
Have a look at Power Wraps by Empower Foods here in Australia. 3g carbs per wrap. I wouldn’t eat it by itself as it has basically no flavour, but it’s delicious with fillings or microwaved with some Cheesybite & cheese. I use these to make mini pizzas with a bit of tomato paste, delicious cured meats, capsicum, mushroom & cheese. Om nom nom!
http://www.empowerfoods.com.au/orders/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=12
damn you aaronosteraas. i’ve been talking about making one of these on ketochat for ages! looks like you beat me to it.
haha me too, I thought about it ages ago, but had a 6 week mind absence it would seem
This looks awesome, and I actually went out and bought a spring-form pan to make this (also, cheese cake!), but your carb count is way off. Two cups of almond meal is 24g net carbs on it’s own, five cups (560g) of mild cheddar cheese is another 20 grams of carbs. Add in the sauce and veggies, and this thing is easily over 50g net carbs. Still an extremely reasonable amount, but a far cry from the 15g quoted in the original posting.
I took this took information from the nutritional labels of products I have on hand, so there may be some variation in what’s reported by each brand, but I believe it should still provide an accurate ballpark figure.
Anyway, thanks for the idea on using the spring-form pan to make a deep dish pizza. I’m really looking forward to making this.
Hey Camden,
Thanks for the comment, I’ve recalculated and it is more than 15g, it’s nearly 20g. Sounds like there might be some regional differences in the products we’re using. My local almond meal is much lower in carbohydrates, and for all the cheese I used, there were only 4.2g, the difference is that I used mozzarella. I didn’t include it because I felt people might choose a cheese they prefer more
Cheers
Aaron
I came up with 60 net carbs. I used Bobs REd Mill almond flour( 24 NC), kraft mozzarella cheese (486 g=16 NC), one cup white button mushrooms(2 NC), 1.5 cup hunts crushed tomatoes (18NC).
What brands are you using? I’m so making this for my family but I’d like to eat it too.
Hey Anne, to be fair I don’t always use the same cheese or note which I do. Most of it is low carb enough that I can have a couple slices and harbor no concern. It seems though, that almond meal varies pretty wildly across the world of ours, here’s the one I use
Hey Aaron, I was wondering If you’ve made this or something similar with golden flax meal? I thought it might work for even lower carbs, but am wondering if it would taste nearly as good. Thoughts?
I’ve tried making a more traditional pizza base with flax before, and personally I thought it was pretty poor. So poor in fact that I still have the bag of flax meal in the cupboard untouched. You could potentially try a mixture of flax and almond though, but I’m not sure how well it would stick together, then again, that’s what all the glorious cheese is for
Did you use golden flax or regular? I’m curious because I hate the regular but can tolerate the golden just fine.
I think it’s just regular, it’s linseed here, in Australia, I’m yet to find golden linseed.
You can find it in the health food section of Woolworth stores.
Found a bag for like $4. (or was it $6…) much better than the Coles brand stock flaxseed.
What size pan is that? 8-inch? I ‘m trying to make this right now and 9-inch is just a bit too big. I’m worried about getting the sides high enough to hold toppings.
Mine is a 9″, too, if I recall correctly. It can be stretched quite thin before it fails, and I bet there’s a lot in the corner that could be redistributed.
Love the look of this pizza, definitely going to try it! But concerned about the raw pork – if it were already cooked, it wouldn’t have to be in the oven so long, and there would be no burned bits. I think I’ll cook the pork first!
Hi Aaron, just wanted to tell you that I made this pizza last night – pizza is definitely something my 16 year old and I miss sometimes – and it was FANTASTIC! I changed things around a bit, putting in cooked chicken and bacon as well as a few extra vegies. I served it with a bean, bacon and walnut salad with maple syrup dressing (sugar free of course). We have more than enough left for tonight – love not having to think about what to cook. This is a definite keeper – my daughter wants to serve it up to her friends for dinner which is probably the biggest compliment you can get! We’re going to try some of your other delicious-looking recipes soon.
Woo! Thanks so much for your, and indirectly your daughters, kind words, Ellie!
That’s sensational, honestly. I love it when people build on what I’ve written up and enjoy it. It’s super versatile, I’d say that just figuring out the crust is the hardest part really, otherwise, the almond meal is your proverbial oyster.
If you try anything please try the Mousakka, I’ve heard the most positive reviews about that from all across the world.
If you have any questions please just ask
You’re very welcome Aaron! I’d love to try the Mousakka however we had an absolute disaster with a low-fat, low everything Mousakka years ago (did I really live the low fat lifestyle for such a long time!!!??). We threw it straight into the bin it was so revolting and headed out for dinner instead. I might have to make yours and not tell my daughter what it is! I’ll let you know how I go. All the best. Great to see another Aussie spreading the low-carb/paleo lifestyle!
Please do try it and let me know what you think. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but it was *easily* one of the best things I’ve ever made, up there in the top five. It’s kind of like some kind of deceptively greek lasagne.
So, when we ended up making this, it felt like 3 cups of cheese was too much. Also, the bread tasted really cheesy, too. Tasted like a Red Lobster biscuit without the butter. It turned out great, but was it supposed to be 3 cups of cheese? The picture there doesn’t look exactly the same. Our blob ended up being really yellow.
Also, have you considered putting some butter into the crust to give it more taste? Or any oregano or anything? If you were going to put butter in, would you put it in along with the eggs/almond flour? How much would you use? I’m a novice to cooking so any recommendations for getting it a slightly more buttery taste would be perfect.
Also, Bella Vita (Netrition.com) sell a very good line of low carb pasta/tomato sauce. I used a Spicy Tomato variant. Just wanted to give that a shout out.
Hey Wayne,
Interesting news on the crust, what kind of cheese did you use? It definitely is cheesy, but I find that’s before it’s cooked, afterwards it tends to be fairly breadish I think. I definitely use the 3 cups of cheese. You can change this recipe up pretty easily, the most important part is to scale everything the same amount.
As for butter in the crust, I’d give it a crack, but it means there’d be more fat, and it could compromise the structural integrity of the crust. That said, it’s not the easiest thing to eat anyway. If I was going to put butter in, I’d probably use a little less cheese. I really love your idea of putting Oregano in the crust though. That’s sensational and I’m absolutely going to do that next time.
Don’t worry about being a novice at cooking though, particularly if you’re worried about something not working, it happens to everyone, but it generally works out alright in the end I find.
Thanks for the link to Bella Vita, too, interesting to check it out, but I’ll have to see if I can get it locally.
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I’m thinking about 2 1/2 of cheese, add in two tablespoons of oregano, 1 tablespoon of garlic, and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. That would keep it cheesy, but add in a good kick. Should keep it still low carb, I believe.
By the way, if you add in bacon, I recommend precooking it. Maybe not until it’s crispy, but definitely want to heat it up a bit.
I bet you could substitute less cheese for more egg. Its the glue in the base and I think egg just might work.
Thanks for the work. It is the best low carb pizza so far. Its all in the crust – and you have figured it out the best so far. I did cook the meat first and the mushrooms. I also had to buy the super expensive pizza sauce at whole foods. ($3.29 a can)
I also had to pour out about a cup or two of water while coopking. Even after 65 min, I could not get the crust to get dark brown. But it was ok and the crust was ok.
thanks
Wow, what a compliment! Thanks so much, I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed it.
A good move to cook the meat first, frankly, I wish I had of, and do ever since.
I find almond meal, be it in this, or cheesecake, to be pretty hardy, you can really crank the heat up if you need to, just so long as you’re keeping an eye on it. But on the temperature front, I have degrees in Celsius, so if you’re running with Fahrenheit you’ll have to convert to match.
Just had to pop in and say my husband and I made this last night. It was fantastic! My husband said it’s his new favourite pizza – before it was the more labour-intensive cauliflower-flax-cheese crusts, which took so much effort to make. I love how easy to throw together this crust is. I was worried my wimpy arms would be too weak to mix it properly, but it cae together beautifully. Thanks for creating such a great, simple recipe, Aaron. It’s sure to become a staple in our pizza-addicted house!
Making this Riiiiiggghhhht Nowwww.
I can’t wait.
If this is good I have to reblog it, of course.
Sensational, let me know what you think of it!
Hello! I’m not a big fan of mushrooms, so I was just wondering if the mushrooms could be substituted for something else, say, cauliflower?
Hey Rhiannon,
You can definitely substitute them, but I wouldn’t recommend cauliflower. I do love cauliflower, but I don’t think it would hold well in this pizza.
Zucchini would be OK I think, but you’d want to fry it or something like that first in order to remove a load of moisture.
Okay great, thank you!
I made this today for my brother’s birthday. It turned out perfectly. I took another commenter’s advice and added less cheese. To scale it, I added a little bit less almond meal. About 10 minutes into baking it, I brushed the crust with butter to help it brown. It was stunning to look at and delicious. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
I was suggested this blog through my cousin. I am no longer certain whether or not this submit is written through him as nobody else understand such particular approximately my trouble. You’re wonderful! Thanks!
By me? It was definitely me who did that, and who ate it, and had to clean the kitchen up. Let me know what part you’re not sure of and I’ll clear it up
Cheers
Aaron
Finally got around to trying this tonight – I made a few subs – hazelnut meal instead of almond (I cant have almonds), par cooked the pork and should have cooked the mushrooms. This came out GREAT!
My non keto but wants to go gluten free boyfriend had two slices, and said the texture of the crust was weird but this was his first gf meal with some kind of substitute instead of omitting entirely.
Will definitely make again!
Awesome news Karen.
Using nut meal is a little weird at first but I guess by now I’m used to it!
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