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| Pizza and beer on a Friday evening! |
I've never made pizza on the grill before. I'd heard about using bricks on the grill to turn it into a brick pizza oven. So... why not? I'll give it a shot and see what happens.
The grocery store has fresh pizza dough ready to roll in the bakery section. My garden is still abundantly overflowing with basil - 3 different types. I went up and down the isles of the grocery store picking out what ever else looked good.
Here's the list of stuff that went on the pizza:
3 types of basil from the garden
Pizza sauce
Goat cheese crumbles
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Spinach
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
I rolled the dough on the counter covered with flour. By the way, countertops are for prepping food. Granite counters work great for this. I have some friends that are sooo afraid to get a drop of anything on their countertops. Drives me crazy! That's what they are there for! Any way, I brushed the dough with olive oil, added the sauce and sliced garlic, added the basil, goat cheese and ricotta cheese. It;s looking good, don't you think?
Then I smothered the pizza with the Mozzarella cheeses blend, covered it with spinach, mushrooms, and onions. I drizzled a little more olive oil over the pizza and added a bit of salt and pepper. It's ready for the grill and looking really good!
The grill: I used lots of smokey mesquite and heated the grill up to 450. Once the grill was hot I added the bricks and let the bricks heat up for 30 minutes. Before putting the pizza on the bricks I covered them with corn meal. Getting the pizza on the grill was a bit of a challenge. The soft dough didn't want to slide off the cookie sheet. It lost it's round shape. I should have covered the sheet with corn meal too.
About 25 minutes later I checked the progress. It looks and smells fantastic! Must be done! Well, almost. The dough in the center was still undercooked. I guess the bricks weren't hot enough. So I took the pizza off the grill, removed the bricks, and put the pizza directly on the grill grate for another 10 minutes. This did the trick. The edges were a little extra crispy but the center was cooked through.
HERE'S THE FINISHED PRODUCT!
It may not be a round pizza anymore but it sure looks good!
The verdict is.... It was OK. It was cooked right and the crispy crust has a great texture. The problem was the smokey flavor. A bit too smokey. OK...way to smokey. I had 3 pieces and convinced myself it was fantastic while I was eating. (The "my baby can't be ugly" syndrome). When I was finished my mouth felt like I had just smoked a couple of cigars. I'll definitely do pizza on the grill again, but I need to invest in a pizza stone for grilling and omit the big chunks of mesquite.
Coming next time.... I'm going to be in trout country for a week, Fishing and grilling!
Try this again but without the mesquite
ReplyDeleterollout the pizza dough brush thin,brush the top of the dough with olive oil and garlic, use fresh tomato slices instead of pizza sauce, and use larger slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and try it with arugala instead of spinach.
I never though of using bricks on the grill to make a brick oven.
it looks good! the bricks are a great idea! we put in a paver patio before we had the hot tub installed and we've got quite a few bricks left... hmmmmm
ReplyDeletePizza on the grill just can't be beat. I would suggest eliminating the mesquite. Charcoal will give you enough smokieness.
ReplyDeleteA trick I use when making pizzas....roll out your douogh and put it on parchment paper. Trim the paper so that you have just enough to grab with a pair of tongs. Then top your pizza however you want. When you are ready, slide your pizza and paper right on to the grill. After 2 or 3 minutes, open the grill and grab the parchment paper with your tongs and it should slide right out from under the pizza. If not, give it another minute or two. Hope that helps.
~Griffin