Grilled Pizza Margherita

I’ve been on a grilling kick so I decided to continue the trend with this Pizza Margherita.  I was supposed to make Focaccia con Formaggio with the rest of the Ciabatta dough (like the other Mellow Bakers did), but I didn’t have any Ricotta Cheese.  Not to mention the fact that my 30+ tomato plants and basil plants have been calling for me to make something with them besides salsa and marinara. So I decided to make use of them and the dough in this pizza.  

I know you’ve been waiting to find out what I planned to do with the other two dough balls from my Grilled Herb Focaccia post so here you go.

 

Grilled Pizza Marguerite Recipe

Makes: 2 pizzas

Dough:

• 2 dough balls (1 pound each) from pizza dough of your choice. I used the rest of the Ciabatta dough from the Grilled Herb Focaccia.
• Extra-virgin olive oil (to spread on the dough before grilling)

 

Toppings:

• Sliced fresh tomatoes (I used heirloom tomatoes from my garden)
• Fresh basil
• Sliced Mozzarella Cheese
• Crushed tomatoes
• Dried thyme and oregano (or your choice of herbs)
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

 

Directions:

Take the dough balls out of the refrigerator and let them warm up to room temperature.  I spread the dough balls out on parchment paper, covered them with plastic wrap and let them rest on the counter while I prepared the grill.

 

I placed a pizza stone on the grates and turned the outside burners of my gas grill to high.  The I closed the lid to let it preheat to at least 450 degrees. The photo is a little fuzzy but you get the picture, right?  I had never used my baking stone on the grill before.  I think I thought it might crack, but then I decided if you could use the baking stone in a 500 degree oven, it should work on the grill, right?

 

I transferred the dough to the grate using a pizza peel. Then I par baked the dough for 5 minutes or so before adding the toppings.  I left the parchment paper on for the first few minutes but then I removed it so the bottom would finish baking.

I forgot to make slits in the dough so it puffed up like a balloon.  It was pretty funny.  I had to carefully make slits with a fork to deflate the dough.

 

I removed the pizza from the grill and added the toppings.  First, I spread it with crushed tomatoes and sprinkled it with thyme and oregano and salt and pepper.  Then I added the sliced mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and basil. 

 

Then I carefully returned the pizza to the grill using a pizza peel and grilled it just until the toppings were cooked and the cheese was melted.  We waited until it cooled just a bit before slicing and eating. We tried to be patient, but it’s really hard when a pizza is just sitting there waiting to be devoured.

 

This grilled pizza was really good.  I forgot to drizzle the dough with the olive oil. I think it would’ve helped the flavor and texture of the dough if I had done that before grilling it; however, my BF said it was great – awesome actually!

I liked the process and how easy it was to grill it.  It tasted good, particularly the tomatoes and the fresh basil. It’s fun to eat fresh from your garden.

 

Mellow Bakers was started by Paul at Yumarama. We’ve been baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.

 

Thanks for visiting the Bread Experience blog.  I hope you’ll join me again soon.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Grilled Pizza Margherita

Another one of the breads on the Mellow Bakers' menu this month is Pizza.  I love pizza and was really excited about trying this one.  I got the opportunity this past weekend when I was invited to a get together with some friends. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to make this pizza dough. It's really hot here these days so I decided to grill it instead of heating up their house.

I chose Pizza Margherita because of it's simplicity. It's basically just uncooked crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. The original pizza was created by an Italian baker from Naples in honor of Queen Margherita.   The red, white, and green ingredients were his homage to the Italian flag.  We had it as an appetizer while the main course was being prepared.  The simple ingredients and the fast preparation worked out really well.

The Pizza Dough is made using the formula on page 273 of Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.


Making the Pizza Dough

I started the process by making a biga of bread flour, water and yeast.  I let the biga sit on the counter for about 15 1/2 hours.

After the biga had rested sufficiently, I mixed all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl (except the biga and the olive oil). You can use a mixer but I mixed it by hand using my danish dough whisk. 

Then, I added the biga in small chunks. Well, my biga was not that firm, it was more like little blobs than chunks.  This was probably because it was much hotter than 70 degrees in my house.

Drizzle the olive oil over the dough and continue mixing until the dough is supple.  I mixed this part with my hands.  The dough was squishy between my fingers.

 

After I had incorporated the olive oil, I transferred the dough to the counter and kneaded it for about 5 minutes.

Then placed the dough in an oiled bowl and covered it with plastic.

And let the dough ferment for a few hours.

I folded the dough after about an hour of bulk fermentation.

Then, I let the dough ferment for another hour at home and transported it in the bowl.  The dough actually fermented for close to 3 hours rather than 2 hours.

Once we got to our friends house, I divided the dough into two balls and let them rest on the counter for about 20 minutes.   I would normally use parchment paper in the oven on the baking stone, but since I was going to grill the pizza, I put the dough balls on greased aluminum foil instead.

Grilling the Pizza Margherita

At this point, I followed the instructions for the grilled Queen Margherita Pizza.  The recipe is from Pizza on the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blumer.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup uncooked grits or polenta, for rolling the dough (I didn't need this since I used aluminum foil).
• 1 ball of prepared pizza dough, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup Crushed Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (or 1 cup grated)  I used packed mozzarella because that is what I had.
• 10 fresh basil leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

   

Crushed Tomato Sauce:

• 1 14.5-ounce can crushed tomatoes with or without basil, undrained.
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pour the crushed tomatoes into a small nonreactive metal or glass bowl.  Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper.  Drain the excess liquid from the tomatoes and discard.

Directions for grilling the pizza:

Preheat a gas grill by setting all of the burners to high, then close the lid and leave on high for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat of all the burners to medium.

Roll out and shape the dough.  Drizzle or spread 1 tablespoon of oil on each side of the dough. I used my fingers to spread one of the dough balls into a shape that would fit the aluminum foil.  I probably should've spread it out a bit thinner, but there wasn't enough room to spread it out anymore.

Then I took it outside using my handy-dandy pizza peel.  I just love this peel!  It's very versatile and easy to use.  It keeps me from getting burned when making pizzas in the oven or on the grill and it folds for easy storage.

Grill the first side of the pizza until the bottom is well marked and nicely browned. 

Use tongs or a pizza peel to flip the pizza. If you grill directly on the grate, you'll get nice grate marks, but I used aluminum foil so I didn't get the grate marks.

Spread the entire surface with the sauce, sprinkle with the garlic, and top with the cheese.

I put all of the toppings on the pizza and started to grill it,

but then I remembered that I wasn't supposed to add the basil yet.  So I took the basil off and finished grilling the pizza until the cheese had melted and the crust was done.

Then I removed it from the grill, and garnished it with more basil and some salt and pepper.  Then you're supposed to slice and serve immediately.  That was not a problem...

because everyone was chomping at the bit to eat the pizza.  In fact, I didn't get anymore photos, but it sure was good!


Happy Baking!
Cathy


The Mellow Bakers group was started by Paul at Yumarama. We’re baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.