Seeing as Boy from Mars is Italian, we are quite picky about pizza, and are devoted to the very thin woodfired-type which are impossible to replicate at home. Even with a pizza stone, the oven just can’t get that hot, and the time taken to cook the pizza through dries it out too much.
That is, until last night, when I was surfing the net and stumbled on an article where a blogger tries Heston Blumenthal’s (of Fat Duck fame) suggestion to use both a cast iron pan and oven grill to superheat the pizza from both sides. Not having the right pan, further research showed that it seems possible to use a pizza stone as well.
So armed with a pizza dough recipe from Georgio Locatelli I found last week, today we tried this out, and (despite my pizza stone cracking) it was a phenomenal success - the pizza cooked in about 2 minutes, very bubbly and slightly charred around the edges, and brown on the bottom. Very little topping required - just a little fresh tomato sauce, pesto I made this morning and some sliced bocconcini, and **Boy from Mars **topped his with fresh proscuitto once the pizza was cooked. Luckily I made double the dough we needed, and there are 2 extra bases in the freezer for later this week when we both get back from sport late. Looks like we’ve saved $60 in takeout pizza this week!
I saw the show where he did this. I’m dying to try it at home.
I once did this with a frozen pizza. It had been left out of the freezer and was defrosted. I couldn’t be bothered waiting while the oven heated up to oven bake it so I put it in a hot non-stick frying pan and cooked it until the crust was crisp (easy to tell, you just lift it up with an egg slide). I then put it under the grill until the toppings were done to taste. Worked out to be perfectly fine. I have told other people who have tried it and they all seem happy with the results.
I grill it all the time. On my outdoor charcoal grill.
Make the dough. You’ll probably have to make a slightly stiffer dough than usual. Oil it well. Shape it and pop it over hot, hot charcoals for about two minutes. Flip it over (it will flip surprisingly easily if it is done) and leave it another two minutes. Then move it to the side of the grill, without charcoal underneat (indrect heat), and add the toppings. Close the top, and cook a few minutes until your cheese is done. Voila, grilled pizza. It’s fantastic.
I learned to do it for camping. I used a broiler pan. It has a top piece that sets on a bottom pan, and the bottom will burn if you don’t disperse the heat in some way which this pan did. A thawed pizza put on the pan and the grill cover left on for ten minutes or so, and a smokey delicous pizzia comes out right at the camp site. The bottom is crisp not burnt, and the top cooked pretty good. I never used a pizzia with raw sauage on it. It may have been cooked alright or maybe not. We heard many of the strolling people deciding thay need to drive to town and have pizza, but it isn’t as good as ours. Once I got it working for camping I started doing it at home.