If you ask John Carruthers, the best Friday pizza night starts on Monday morning. That’s because the tavern-style crust he’s perfected as the creator of home-based Crust Fund Pizza owes its cracker crunch to a dayslong cold dough fermentation followed by a 12-hour cure. “The cure dries the dough and ensures a crispy crust and a quick bake,” he explains. See for yourself with the recipe for his Royko pizza, named for the legendary local columnist and topped with — what else? — the classic Chicago combo of Italian sausage and giardiniera. Nothing beats homemade sauce, but if you opt for store-bought, Carruthers suggests add-ins like fish sauce, Marmite, red wine vinegar, or dried herbs to add umami and balance out the tomato’s sweetness.

Crust Fund’s Royko Pizza

Makes:2 pizzas
Active time:40 minutes
Total time:1 hour, plus 2 to 7 days for fermentation and curing

1. Make the dough: In a food processor fitted with a dough blade, briefly pulse the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and yeast to combine. Add water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and start the processor again. When the dough comes together and begins to spin around on the blade, count to 30 and stop the machine. Let the dough rest in the processor for 20 minutes, then free it from the blade and process it again for 30 seconds. Divide the dough into two equal balls, coat each with olive oil, and refrigerate them in tightly sealed quart containers or ziplock bags for at least 48 hours or up to 7 days.

2. Roll out the dough: On the morning of the day you plan to make the pizza, sprinkle your countertop with flour, remove a dough ball from the refrigerator, and roll it out into a round. To preserve a circular shape, start the rolling pin at the center of the dough, roll away from you, then turn the dough a quarter rotation. Repeat, lifting the dough occasionally to ensure it’s not sticking to the counter, until it’s 15 inches across. Place the round on a parchment-lined cutting board and return it to the refrigerator, uncovered, for 8 to 12 hours. Repeat with the remaining dough.

3. Assemble the pizza: Heat a baking steel (or pizza stone) on the center oven rack at 550 degrees (or 500, if that’s as high as your oven goes) for 1 hour. Remove one dough round from the refrigerator. Spread it from edge to edge with half the pizza sauce, then top with ¼ cup Parmesan, followed by half the mozzarella. Place half the sausage, pinched into chunks, on top, then randomly scatter half the giardiniera in the spaces between. Sprinkle with an additional ¼ cup Parmesan.

4. Bake the pizza: Slide the pizza, still on its parchment, onto the baking steel. Bake for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the parchment so the crust is in direct contact with the baking steel. Continue baking until the sausage browns and the bottom of the crust has moderate black spotting, 3 to 7 minutes. Remove and cool the pizza on a rack for 2 minutes, then cut it into a grid and serve. Repeat with the remaining dough round.