Savoring pizza cooked on an outdoor grill is an uncommon taste experience with singular rewards. The hot charcoal briquettes or lava rocks add enticing, smoke-filled aromatics to the pie that conventional kitchen ovens cannot duplicate. The taste of the crunchy piecrust, topped with bubbling hot, melted cheese is wistfully reminiscent of the pizza served fresh out of the brick ovens from my bygone New York City neighborhood pizzerias. It is a Proustian Memory from my youth that I still relish with each morsel of pizza made on a grill.
One of the fundamental steps to successfully cooking pizza on an outdoor grill is bringing the temperature of the pizza stone, an essential tool, to the same temperature of the grill’s cooking chamber. The hot pizza stone sears the outside of the piecrust for a memorable, crispy and crunchy homemade pizza. The other equally important practice is elevating the stone from the grate, about two to three inches, with a metal vegetable basket or some other similar device that will not block the heat from the pizza stone. Elevating the stone in this manner places the uncooked pizza in the higher and hotter area of the cooking chamber to melt the cheese in the same amount of time necessary to cook the thin pizza dough.
The rest is easy; preheat the cooking chamber to 450° with the pizza stone in place, in order for the stone to reach the same temperature as the cooking chamber, slide the pizza with your favorite toppings onto the stone using a pizza peel. Close the cover to the grill and cook until finished. Randy Wade, the owner of Tumacookery in Tubac Arizona and my grilling guru, recommends a wooden pizza peel for this. When your piping hot, fresh made pizza is ready, slip a metal pizza peel underneath the crust, remove and enjoy! Following these simple steps will ensure a perfectly cooked pizza every time and—the creation your own Proustian Pizza Memory.
Randy Wade’s Signature Vegetarian Pizza Topping
Spread two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons of a balsamic vinegar reduction, or an equal amount of both, sufficient to cover the pie dough. Then add chopped arugula greens, a sprinkling of raw pecans and dried cranberries; the proportions of theses ingredient are to individual taste preferences; start with a quarter cup of each and adjust their amounts and proportions on your next pizza or pizzas. Finish the topping with thinly shaved slices of tangy Manchego cheese, sufficiently spaced for each slice to have its own shaving of cheese.
This no-fuss, easy to prepare combination of sweet and savory flavors elevates an ordinary pizza into a gourmet treat. Try a glass or two of Pinot Grigio by Cavit or a Soave by Inama; both are inexpensive Italian white wines that harmonize perfectly with the taste sensations of Randy’s vegetarian pizza.
One of the fundamental steps to successfully cooking pizza on an outdoor grill is bringing the temperature of the pizza stone, an essential tool, to the same temperature of the grill’s cooking chamber. The hot pizza stone sears the outside of the piecrust for a memorable, crispy and crunchy homemade pizza. The other equally important practice is elevating the stone from the grate, about two to three inches, with a metal vegetable basket or some other similar device that will not block the heat from the pizza stone. Elevating the stone in this manner places the uncooked pizza in the higher and hotter area of the cooking chamber to melt the cheese in the same amount of time necessary to cook the thin pizza dough.
The rest is easy; preheat the cooking chamber to 450° with the pizza stone in place, in order for the stone to reach the same temperature as the cooking chamber, slide the pizza with your favorite toppings onto the stone using a pizza peel. Close the cover to the grill and cook until finished. Randy Wade, the owner of Tumacookery in Tubac Arizona and my grilling guru, recommends a wooden pizza peel for this. When your piping hot, fresh made pizza is ready, slip a metal pizza peel underneath the crust, remove and enjoy! Following these simple steps will ensure a perfectly cooked pizza every time and—the creation your own Proustian Pizza Memory.
Randy Wade’s Signature Vegetarian Pizza Topping
Spread two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons of a balsamic vinegar reduction, or an equal amount of both, sufficient to cover the pie dough. Then add chopped arugula greens, a sprinkling of raw pecans and dried cranberries; the proportions of theses ingredient are to individual taste preferences; start with a quarter cup of each and adjust their amounts and proportions on your next pizza or pizzas. Finish the topping with thinly shaved slices of tangy Manchego cheese, sufficiently spaced for each slice to have its own shaving of cheese.
This no-fuss, easy to prepare combination of sweet and savory flavors elevates an ordinary pizza into a gourmet treat. Try a glass or two of Pinot Grigio by Cavit or a Soave by Inama; both are inexpensive Italian white wines that harmonize perfectly with the taste sensations of Randy’s vegetarian pizza.
