Mastering the art of pizza on the grill
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| This grilled pizza with peppers, mushrooms, feta cheese and onions requires a little practice, but is worth the effort. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@svnmail.com) |
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OK, I am going to tell you right up front that cooking a raw pizza on the outdoor grill is tricky. No matter how many tips and recipes you use, you will not get it exactly like you want it, with no burn spots and no cracks, on the first try. Or the second, or maybe never.
I have been promising you grilled pizza for weeks, teasing you. To be more accurate, I was stalling. I saw a recipe for cooking pizza on the grill and it looked so easy. Who would have thought I would have to practice so long to get it right? I tried to make it – well, actually, I did make it, and it was super DE-licious. That was not the problem. The problem was that nothing went right – nothing went like the recipe said it was supposed to. It was pretty messy.
First of all, the recipe said to turn the grill on high. I did. The bottom of that pizza crust charred in several places before I even got the whole thing on the grill. Other parts of the crust were not even lightly browned. Actually, they were raw, especially in the middle. The topping was too heavy and fell onto the grill and through the grates. The pizza split in several places, letting go of its toppings – right into the fire. And when I tried to lift the pizza off the grill, in a rush because it was black on parts of the bottom, Alex, the photographer, had to grab two spatulas and help me slide it onto the pizza pan.
We finally got the broken and burned pizza onto the round pan and – you are not going to believe this – it was delicious! We could not believe how good it tasted, nor how cool it looked. Oh, sure, we had to cut out sections of the crust, and some of the ingredients on the top were a little crisp. Some were raw. But, all in all, we both thought that pizza was very good. It had a real authentic rustic flavor about it – both in taste and in appearance – like a real brick-oven pizza.
Despite my euphoria, I was not that easily fooled. I have been around the kitchen (and the grill) a couple of times. You would have to go through everything we did to really enjoy the rustic flavor of that grilled pizza.
I knew I would need several more practice runs before I had this pizza-on-the-grill feature ready. I would just say, right off the bat, that you will need to make it approximately 4 times, from start to finish, before you get out the kinks, and even then, you may have charred spots, splits, and other problems. But even with the charred spots and splits, it is still the most delicious pizza you will ever eat.
If you keep at it, you will get it to taste better than any pizza you have cooked. And you will have a lot of fun doing it. It will be a snappy conversation piece for your neighbors and friends who are watching you grill it.
I just want to warn you, however. Seriously, before you tackle pizza on the grill, please read every word of every tip. It might also be a good idea to get the kids in the house while you are practicing.
But you can do this; I know you can. If at first you don’t succeed – you know the rest.
