So, I mentioned in my last post that I tried out Artizone for some key ingredients this week. They deliver local, yummy ingredients right to your door. I clapped my hands in happiness when I saw them pull up in front of my house…
Artizone is currently operating in Dallas and Chicago but will soon be able to ship nationwide.
In addition to the lovely ribs, I had them send me some pizza fixins: fresh mozzarella from The Mozzarella Company, pepperoni from Hirsch’s Specialty Meats, and pasta/pizza sauce from Gorji Gourmet Foods.
In our house, my hubby (we’ll just start calling him Doug) is in charge of most of the bread/pasta/dough making, as he has loads more patience and precision in his cooking. So, he was the official pizza dough maker for this little experiment. He used this recipe he found online but I do think we will be experimenting with others. (If you have a favorite pizza dough recipe for the grill, please share.) I focused on revving my Green Egg up to about 600 degrees, placesetter legs down. I used the grate to support my pizza stone.
Woo-hoo, that’s hot!
I used the excellent feedback from Jason at Griffin’s Grub to build our pies on parchment, trimmed to fit our pizza stone for easy transfer to the grill.
This was the pepperoni version, pre-grillin
Then, we just slid the parchment out after a bit (like that old tablecloth trick) to crisp up the bottom. I wasn’t precisely timing everything but, as I recollect, we let the pizza be with the lid closed for about 8 minutes, removed the parchment, and then left it on for another 3 minutes or so. (Mostly we just eyeballed it and pulled it off when it looked melted and crispy and so yummy we couldn’t stand it anymore.) We did two versions – one with pepperoni and one with sun-dried tomatoes – and they were both quite to our liking.
Nice and crispy!
One important thing I learned: I had smoked those lovely ribs that night before and there were some coals left, so I just built on top. As a result, the pizzas had a bit of apple wood smokiness to them. We didn’t really mind and, in fact, I might choose toppings in the future that would play off the smokiness – but good to remember to clean and fully reset the coals for non-smoky pizza.
- Coming up: News about an award (!!!) and a little story about four travelers, a famous Italian butcher, and the biggest darn steak you’ve ever seen.
Zen of BBQ 