Tuesday, July 6, 2010

My Take on Italy - Making Pizza on the Grill

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A Sure Bet - Bacon and Pepperoni Pizza

I realized the other day that it has been quite some time since I've written a foodie-related post. And while this is indeed a blog about vegetable gardening, sometimes it's nice to break free from the norm. So in the spirit of shaking things up a bit, let me tell you about my latest culinary addiction - backyard pizza.

I'll just come out and say it - I make a mean pizza. In fact, I'll probably never have pizza delivered again. I apologize if that sounds cocky. I'm just tell you how it is. Mind you, it wasn't always this way. I've also made my fair share of really BAD pizza. And as a result, I used to think that in order to make great pizza, you had to have a wood fired oven that can reach temperatures of 700 degree F or more. While in most cases this is true, you can still make some truly delicious pizza using your outdoor gas grill. I simply place a baking stone directly on the grill, close the lid and crank the heat up all the way. When the temperature inside reaches at least 500 degrees F, I know that I'm good to go. The pizza cooks very quickly - in about 5 minutes. The hotter the grill and quicker the bake, the better in my opinion.

So why not do this in your kitchen? Because the last thing I want to do is to have an oven on full blast during the height of summer. Plus I think a closed grill does a much better job of circulating the heat. And as an added bonus, the bottom of the pizza always browns beautifully.

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Something More Exotic - Pizza Topped with Shrimp, Oyster Mushrooms, Garden Peas and Goat Cheese

It's true what they say - a pizza is only as good as its crust. In my opinion, the best pizzas have a Neapolitan style crust - one that's thin, crispy on the bottom and bubbly around the edges. The recipe I use comes from one of my favorite cookbooks - The Bread Baker's Apprentice - Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. You can also find Peter Reinhart's recipe for Neapolitan-style pizza dough here.

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Finally, here are some of my tips for making truly spectacular backyard pizza:

Use fresh herbs - commercial pizza can be really bland in my opinion. I usually sprinkle on top of my pizza plenty of chopped fresh herbs like thyme, oregano and basil from my garden. I also use herbs that pair well with certain toppings (like shrimp and dill for example).

One quick turn - I always turn my pizza 180 degrees half way during the cooking process. This ensures that it browns evenly. Aside from doing this, the grill is kept closed.

Less is more - Finding the right balance between sauce, cheese and toppings is art form in and of itself. Too much of anything and the pizza suffers.

The cheese - Use at least 3 kinds of cheese - 1 hard and 2 melting. Also, toppings should be placed on top of the crust in a certain order - sauce, then melting cheese, then toppings, followed by a light sprinkling of fresh herbs, melting cheese and hard cheese.

Shake and bake - getting the pizza onto the baking stone can be a tricky task. I don't use cornmeal to dust my peel. Semolina flour is a better alternative. However, I prefer to assemble my pizza on top of a prepared rimless baking sheet. To prepare the baking sheet, spray the surface lightly with some non-stick spray or cooking oil. Use a paper towel to evenly distribute the oil and remove the excess. Then evenly sprinkle flour onto the surface using a shaker. When you're finished assembling the pizza, transfer and bake it as soon as possible. Hold the baking sheet at a 30 degree angle to the baking stone and lightly shake from left to right to release the pizza.

Think outside the box - the beauty of making your own pizza is that you're not limited to Domino's toppings. The classics are always a sure bet, but coming up with the right mix of more exotic toppings can result in something that's truly amazing.

28 comments:

  1. Oh, sweet Jesus, Thomas, don't post these things while I'm holding out eating dinner until the family gets home. My God, those look good.

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  2. Yum, my kind of pizza, I'll have 2 slices of the shrimp pizza please.

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  3. Bacon and pepperoni for me, please.

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  4. Om nom nom! I don't have a gas grill though, just use charcoal. Le-sigh. those are some beautiful pizzas though, amazing!

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  5. Can a person gain weight by just looking at good food?? If so, all my diet losses for last week flew out the window just now!

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  6. Next, here's where you torture me by saying the boy eats the pizza as well as everything you pull from the garden.

    Go on...say it.

    ;)

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  7. YUM!!!! I never thought about using my outdoor grill for baking pizza. I use the recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's one of my favorite cookbooks.

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  8. I'm with you on all points! Hubby has been making pizza this way for years, ever since his time overseas eating street pizzas, crust is so thin it is more like a cracker. Our grill is on the hot side so we use a piece of slate on the grates for the crust. The key to sliding that pizza is tons of cornmeal, lots of people give up because they can't slide their pizza crust without jacking it up! Less is definitely more! He needs to get back and make some, it's not my job LOL! For those that insist on the oven, we have found that slate or baking stone works fine as long as it is heated thoroughly BEFORE sliding the pizza in, and spraying the oven walls down with water will help produce a beautiful crust! Now I'm hungry... LOL! Hubby has plans for building an outdoor oven for his pizzas and bread when he gets back!

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  9. Thomas, grilled pizza is so delicious! I have not put my stone on my grill (it never leaves my oven), but a grill stone is on my "wish list". I love the style of crust you make......I can almost smell that Pepperoni Pizza, YUM.

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  10. Gorgeous!! And I bet as delicious as it looks. I just made grilled pizza last week, but mine was not as pretty as yours... tasty, but not drop dead gorgeous.

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  11. I don't mind you being cocky about it but do you have to drive me nuts with pictures of it? Me and 608 are now locked in to a drooling contest!

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  12. Oh that looks delish! We have made our own pizza's for years. Yes, you got it right, Thomas. Homemade crusts are the best when thin and crispy.

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  13. Very yum! I tend to load too many toppings on and then the pizza is not as easy to work with to get it on the hot stone. Never done it on the grill but use a baking stone in a very hot oven with good success. I will have to heed your advice though and go a little lighter on the toppings.

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  14. Another tip for people that load up on toppings and the crust won't get crispy is to make more pizzas! To get an idea of how thin they are, we only put one topping plus herbs per pizza, and tend to make about 4-5 grilled pizzas out of one batch of dough for our family of 4.

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  15. Must...stop...drooling! Seriously, this spit isn't good for my keyboard!

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  16. I love love LOVE pizza on the grill, I make it at least once a week in the summer in fact! I make a whole wheat crust and tend to make several personal sized pizzas at once, that way we can avoid the "topping war".

    I'm going to have to make pizza today, this post is making me hungry!

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  17. DH make gourmet flatbreads, I just don't care for Pizzeria pizza anymore (except when in NYC, then we head over to Arther Ave for an authentic neopolitan slice). We find pizza's are a good way to use up leftovers and I have recently learned I can grill chicken wings now to master the perfect wing sauce.
    FYI if you don't want to make the dough (we don't always in the summer) you can also use pitas as the shell for grilled pizzas.

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  18. Dang...I bet that IS good! Thanks for sharing this post with us!

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  19. The pizza looks and sounds delicious! I'm about ready to make some of my own... or maybe I can have you come by and whip some up for me??

    Cheers for a delicious post!

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  20. Brilliant. Grilled pizza always sounded complicated, but it's no harder than the oven and doesn't heat up the house.

    And we have this rectangular baking stone...

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  21. You've made me hungry now. I've never grilled a pizza before and right now I don't even have a grill, but maybe in the future. I do love grilled bread, but that I've made directly on the grill, no stone involved.

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  22. Your pizzas look amazing! I wish I lived next door. ;)

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  23. I think I'm going to challenge you to a pizza duel, my pizza is pretty awesome.
    What variety of zucchini did you plant this year?
    Anna

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  24. Bloody hot in Brooklyn and now I want pizza. Thank you. Thank you very much. Snarl.

    It may be a kitchen garden blog, but what happens when they're harvested? Into the kitchen (...) and into the mouth. More food please :-)

    I'm going to make braaied pizza. Thanks for the inspiration

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  25. Thanks everyone for your comments! Let's have a pizza cook off!

    Anonymous - I grew black beauty zucchini this year. They are prolific and are HUGE at the moment.

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  26. I use Peter Reinhart's recipe and love his pizza philosophy. I'm gonna have to try your other recipe. I also agree on less is more and fresh herbs are a must. We have grilled ours directly on the grates as well and it has turned out great (super high indirect heat). Great post!

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  27. I've never baked pizza on the grill before. Now I'll have to try it!

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  28. I'm an avid griller and my wife makes a killer pizza. We've made grilled pizza in the past but it was always by putting the dough directly on the grill grate. Funny how we've never thought about putting the stone on the grill. Doh!

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