Free From The Oppression of Bertucci’s!

(Just kidding. I really like Bertucci’s!)

When we moved into our new apartment, Fiance and I realized our tiny little hibachi grill wasn’t going to cut it anymore. So we went out and bought a ginormous charcoal grill, and the little hibachi has been downgraded to a portable fire pit. One day, while deciding what we wanted for dinner, one of us suggested pizza. Suddenly, like the proverbial lightbulb, Fiance realizes: “I bet we could make the pizza on the grill!”

So we tried, and it came out awesome!! It was surprisingly super easy, too. All the ingredients we picked up at the local Trader Joe’s, and the whole process takes maybe half an hour. Want to know how we did it? How about a recipe-in-pictures?

First Things First.

You’re going to need a few things:

• pizza dough – any kind will do. I want to try and make my own from scratch next time!
• pizza sauce – again, any kind is fine. For this tutorial, we ran out of sauce and used marinara instead. It came out fine, but tasted a little different. Also, pizza sauce is thicker, so keep that in mind.
• cheese – we use a mix of mozzarella, asiago, fontina, and parmesan. Fiance is lactose-intolerant, so we use the harder cheeses that will still melt, and toss in some Cabot mozzarella (Cabot cheeses are lactose-free) when we get lucky enough to find it
• toppings – this is the fun part! We’re low on toppings right now, so we only used mushrooms, but some of our favorites include sweet apple chicken sausage, pineapple, chicken, and mushrooms!
• corn meal – this is super important for when you’re stretching and rolling out your dough.
• charcoal – we use 100% natural hardwood lump charcoal. Its literally chunks of charred wood. Briquettes burn longer, but the lump charcoal burns cleaner and hotter, AND it makes the pizza taste much better. If you can find some in your area, get flavored wood chips!! We did this with applewood once, and it was DELICIOUS. (Check Hannaford, if you have one. That’s where we got ours.)

I was getting creative with my camera and Google+ picture editor, so the steps are in picture form. Check below the pictures for tips and tricks that we’ve discovered along the way!

Here we go!

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You can’t see it, but our stone has a pig ole crack down the center, splitting it in two. I guess we use it a lot!

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Also shown: our BRAND NEW pizza peel that Fiance got so excited for, a rolling pin and a mesh sifter/strainer to spread the cornmeal over the work surface evenly. All are SUPER helpful, but not necessary.

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Not shown: all the rolling, spreading, and the weird dough-covering-fists-in-the-air thing they do in the movies.

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If you couldn’t tell, we LOVE bamboo in my house. Well, I do. Even my spoon is bamboo!

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Once the pizza is on the grill, go clean your counter!! I always do it while the food is cooking, because after I eat, when my belly is happy and full, I never have the urge to get up to clean my mess.

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Recommended temp is 500 degrees; if you get your grill this hot, your pizza should cook in about 10 minutes. Keep your eye on it, ultimately. Some like it crispy, some like it doughy!

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Super easy, right? And like I said, it takes about a half hour total.

And yes, that is my fiance, David. He didn’t want me to post this pic originally; he said he looked unshaven. I said if he was really ashamed of being seen unshaven, he would shave more.

A note about all the bamboo: we have a lot of bamboo products in our kitchen, and I want to eventually have even more. Cutting boards, rolling pins, utensils, even serving trays and dishes. Bamboo is super awesome because it grows so quickly and with such abundance that it’s a great renewable resource, it’s wicked durable (awesome for hardwood floors!), and depending on where you shop and what you buy, it’s affordable. It’s also wicked easy to clean! I’d hate to work in a kitchen without it.

/end public service announcement

What are your favorite pizza toppings? And if you try this at home, send me a pic! I’ll show off your success stories in a future post.