Tag Archives: Pizza

Pizza on a Charcoal BBQ

18 Nov

(quick notes, mostly jotted down to remember what worked well)

My third try in three years, and the most successful (I got the grill up to 700 degrees, which I’m sure helped):

IMG_8469

Grill setup: plenty of charcoal below, all air passages cleared of ash, and a pizza stone (porous side up for my glazed/porous stone) raised on two bricks to bring the pizza close to the hot lid of the ceramic grill. I let the charcoal burn for 90 minutes with the lid closed to get the entire grill up to 650-700 degrees (when I tried making a pizza earlier, it burned on the bottom before it fully cooked on the top– I think because the ceramic grill lid wasn’t hot enough– I could also try further raising the stone next time).

IMG_20181103_173221

The dough recipe is down at the bottom. After letting it rise overnight in the fridge, I pulled it out about an hour before the grill was ready and rolled out each crust on a floured board before transferring it to the peel (on a layer of coarse cornmeal), rubbing olive oil into it, sprinkling a little salt onto it, and then topping it.

IMG_20181103_171743

Each pizza only had to bake for 3 or maybe 4 minutes when the grill was at peak temperature (later in the evening the charcoal burned down and the grill dropped to 500-550 degrees– the pizzas still came out pretty well).

IMG_8463

IMG_8470

IMG_8471

IMG_8473

We made 6 different pizzas in one evening for a small cocktail party with a group of friends– success!

Dough recipe (6 small pizzas, enough for 6-9 people):

  • 690g white* flour
  • 255g whole wheat flour
  • 21g sugar
  • 15g salt
  • 15g yeast
  • 690g lukewarm water
  • 48g olive oil

(*usually King Arthur bread flour, but this time I used a 50/50 mix of bread and all-purpose because I ran out of bread flour)

Mix all the dry ingredients except the yeast.

Make a small depression in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the yeast there.

Gradually pour the water/oil mixture into this depression, stirring in a small circle to dissolve the yeast and to gradually incorporate the flour into this.

Turn the (quite wet and sticky) dough out onto a floured countertop and knead a dozen times.

Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, let rise overnight in the fridge (take it out at least 15 minutes before making pizzas and divide it into 6 balls).

Tags: ,

Grilled Pizza

28 Mar

Still working on getting a pizza stone hot enough and where exactly in the grill it and the fire should go, but these were good…

IMG_20170327_192051

Using my father’s some-whole-wheat-flour high-moisture-content long-rising dough recipe:

IMG_20170327_200102Butternut squash, red onion, buffalo mozzarella, gremolata:

IMG_20170327_201437

Tomato sauce, anchovies, bitter greens, salted olives, chili flakes:

IMG_20170327_203839

Pesto, ricotta, asparagus:IMG_20170327_205546

Tags: , , ,

PDX Food: Apizza Scholls

28 Feb

Apizza Scholls: still one of my very favorite pizzas in the US (New Haven style), up there with DiFara’s in Brooklyn and Pizzaiolo in Oakland. Amazing crust texture (thin, pliant, slight crunch), balanced tomato sauce… yes.

apizza scholls

Tags: , ,

Bagels and pizza: it’s not the water?

3 Oct

A brief article from Slate earlier this summer suggests that if you’re making your own bagels, the water (New York or otherwise) doesn’t really matter– it’s the combination of gluten, slow rising, and boiling before baking.

Similarly, an article in The Food Lab at Slice / Serious Eats suggests the mineral level in water has no significant effect on the quality of pizza dough.

Tags: , , , ,

Una Pizza Napoletana!

30 Sep

After a few disappointing restaurants in the past two months, I’m on a roll: the pizzas at Una Pizza Napoletana were the most delicious I’ve had in the bay area.

A bold statement, but I stand by it. My eyes might have rolled back into my head.

The crust was very good (slightly charred, and a bit chewier than the crispy sharded style I think of myself preferring– but it challenged my preconceived notions and won me over). But the real revelation was the outstanding flavor, from just the simple Neapolitan combination of buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, garlic, basil, and sea salt (in the case of the Bianca– the Margherita that added San Marzano tomato sauce was also fantastic). How was it so good?

A few quick and blurry cell phone photos:

I do try to avoid “favorite”, especially for food like pizza where there’s so much personal preference about style. There’s plenty of good pizza in the Bay Area– I’ve been a big fan of both Boot and Shoe Service and Pizzaiolo. And Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was good when I went a few years back. I used to like Cheese Board and Goat Hill but they’ve drifted down my list. I like Little Star for deep dish, but that’s not usually the style I’m in the mood for. And Arinell is still where I like to go for a “cheap cheese slice late at night”. On the other hand, I found Zero Zero deeply mediocre.

But I’ll definitely go back to Una Pizza Napoletana.

p.s. This was also my first time drinking Sanbitter, an intense non-alcoholic digestif reminiscent of Campari.

Tags: ,