Saturday, March 24, 2012

Gas grill pizzeria

Greetings from the tropical wonderland that is Central Minnesota! We have been experiencing May in March. Last year the temperature on St.Paddy's day was low 30's with 9 inches of snow, this year? 72 and mostly sunny.

So what? Well it means grilling, golfing, and flip flops. We will concentrate on the grilling by turning the gas grill into a brick pizza oven. Here's what you need- a gas grill(if there is a rotisserie burner on yours that's even better), enough firebrick to cover your grill surface( I bought 2 boxes at Home Depot for about 16 bucks), a large spatula, and some thin, flat bread crusts. That's it!!

Place the firebrick on the grill, turn the burners on, and shut the lid.



Ok so the grill is heating, it will take about 10 - 15 to get the bricks hot, the longer the better.

Now is the time to assemble your pizza.

Here is a list of ingredients that we had for our pizza night:
Crusts- we used the Flatout brand flatbreads from the deli area of our market
Sauces- we used a jarred Alfredo, some garlic oil( 2 cloves of garlic, chopped and drowned in olive oil), and a can of tomato sauce with a little basil and oregano
Cheeses- fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella, a wedge of pecorino Romano, a wedge of parmegano reggiano, and feta.
**helpful cheese hint - a lot of deli sections in supermarkets will have small wedges of cheese in a basket, these are usually pieces off the wheel that were too small to sell for full price so they wrap them up as " tasters" and sell them for 3 to 5 dollars. They are a great way to try a new cheese without spending a big chunk of change on something you might not like.
Toppings- ours included grilled chicken, some leftover Spanish chorizo, olives, tomatoes, basil, spinach, artichokes, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, extra virgin olive oil, and sliced sweet peppers.



Method- spread about a Tbsp of sauce on the crust, add a little garlic oil, spread a little mozzarella over the sauce, add your toppings, grate a little Pecorino and Parm over the top, and drizzle a little oil over the whole shebang and its ready for cooking.



Now is the time to turn on the rotisserie heat, if you have one. Place the pizzas on the bricks with one edge close to the rotisserie heater.
Close the lid and let them cook for about 2 minutes, turn them so another edge is by the rotisserie, and repeat until the pizza is crisp and cooked. If you don't have the rotisserie burner , I would still move them around to keep from burning.




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For extra flavor drizzle a little good olive oil on top, maybe a few red pepper flakes, enjoy.



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