COOKING: Bake That Pizza on the Grill Next Time
By Bob HooverPittsburgh Post-Gazette
Grilling is so easy that even Tony Soprano does it. Toss hunks of meat on the rack over hot coals or gas flame, poke at them with a fork, then complain about the heat so you can drain cold beers.
If that's your idea of outdoor cooking, stop reading. Grilling pizza or other breads is not for you. Stick with hotdogs.
However, if you're game, the payoff is so great that you'll never hesitate again to make pizza and breads this way.
What is this payoff? A crust that tastes like no other, with toppings made intensely flavorful by the smoke of hardwood charcoal. (No briquettes, please.)
As a longtime bread baker who yearned to build a wood-fired oven in the back yard but lacked the confidence, I found an instant outlet in the backyard grill.
The inspiration was Al Forno, an Italian restaurant in Providence, R.I., a city packed with Italian restaurants. Al Forno stood out among all those checkered tablecloths because of its grilled pizza.
The owners, Johanne Killen and George Germon, published their cookbook, "Cucina Simpatica," in 1991, revealing the grilled-pizza secret.
And that secret is a grill with a hot side and a cool side. The dough, well-coated with olive oil, is dropped first on the hot side.
It quickly begins to rise and get bubbles on the top side. At that moment, you flip it over to the cool side, using the now-baked and slightly scorched side as the surface for your toppings.
The dough continues to bake, but over low coals, turning out a dark brown, crunchy and smoky-tasting pizza impossible to make any other way.
It takes practice until you can judge the temperatures. Too hot, and the dough is blackened and inedible. Too cold, and nothing happens. (But that's rare.)
The set-up
Any good-sized grill will do, but kettle-shaped ones offer the best way to arrange the coals in a slope from high to low.
For shallower grills, use bricks to divide the coals, but the important factor is creating a large-enough and cool-enough spot to let a 12-inch pizza finish baking.
You'll need a table large enough to hold various cooking and grill tools, potholders or oven mitts, a container of olive oil and a brush, all toppings, a large cutting board for the finished pizza, serving platters, and maybe some petroleum jelly for burned fingers. Maybe.
Because this is all about technique, you pick the sauce and toppings.
As for the dough, I've included a recipe for a homemade one here, but frozen dough (thawed of course) will work.
Base your pizza size on the homemade-dough directions.
The baking
Two hours before baking, coat a baking sheet with olive oil, roll the dough balls on it to cover with oil and let them sit uncovered at room temperature. Shortly before bake time, flatten the balls into rough circles, coat with oil and stack until ready.
Using the back of another baking sheet brushed with oil, place a dough circle in the middle and begin stretching it with the heel of your hand. If you know how to stretch regular pizza dough using your knuckles and flipping it, go right ahead.
A rolling pin works well, too. The plan is to get the dough circle, which now might have become oblong, but no matter, about 1/8-inch thick and 12 to 15 inches in diameter.
Brush the dough with oil and mist the grill with an oil spray. Carefully slide the dough onto the hot side of the grill and get ready. Within 30 seconds, the surface will start to bubble.
Lift the dough to check for burning, and remove immediately to the cool side if it's getting black. When the bottom just begins to char, pick it up, move to the cool side and spread oil on the unbaked side.
Then flip it, using the baked side for the toppings.
Put the cheese on first, using less than you would for an oven-baked pizza, then the sauce, then other toppings.
It will take 3 to 6 minutes for the pizza to finish baking and the cheese to melt. Move it to a cutting board for serving.
DOUGH FOR GRILLED PIZZA
4-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat, rye or cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
3-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1-3/4 cups water
Three methods of mixing
By hand:
In 4-quart bowl, mix dry ingredients well, then add the water (make it lukewarm) and 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil until combined.
Work the dough vigorously with one hand, moistening frequently with warm water while turning the bowl with the other. Adding flour or water as needed by the tablespoon, form the dough into a coarse ball.
Let dough rest covered with a damp towel, 15 to 20 minutes, then turn out onto a floured surface.
Knead it for 2 to 4 minutes until it is smooth and tacky. If too sticky, sprinkle lightly with flour, kneading it in.
For stand mixer, fitted with dough hook:
Blend dry ingredients and mix in lukewarm water and 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil well with spoon.
Using low speed, mix for 4 minutes or so until the dough forms a coarse ball, adding flour or water until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl.
Let dough rest 15 to 20 minutes covered with a damp towel, then mix an additional 2 to 4 minutes.
For food processor:
Fit the plastic blade, add dry ingredients and pulse several times to blend. With the processor running, add cool water and 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil and process until a coarse ball forms. Add flour if necessary to make the dough move freely in the bowl.
Allow dough to rest 15 to 20 minutes in the closed processor, then process for a minute or two.
To bake (use this procedure regardless of mixing method): Divide dough into 6 pieces, form each into a ball and rub with olive oil.
Place each ball into a sealable plastic freezer bag, allow to rest 30 minutes at room temperature, then place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.
When ready to proceed, take dough from refrigerator 2 hours before grilling, roll in olive oil and let rest. Immediately before baking, stretch into circular or rectangular shape, brown one side on hot grill until top bubbles and bottom is just beginning to char, about 30 seconds. Then immediately move to cool side of grill, brush with olive oil and flip to cook other side.
Top with your choice of cheese, then sauce and other ingredients, and continue cooking until bottom is browned, cheese is melted and other ingredients are warmed through, 3 to 6 minutes.
Bob Hoover can be reached at bhoover@post-gazette.com.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.