The Best Pizza Ever - On Your BBQ

PERFECTING PIZZA – The King of the BBQ is now the king of the Pizza!

How to get that wood-fire pizza taste without a wood-fire pizza oven.

I’ve always wanted to own my own wood-fire oven – you know those massive stone, domed creations that great wood-fired pizza restaurants have as part of the décor and atmosphere and not just an impressive cooking vessel. They produce the ultimate puffed and burnished crust with molten lava sauce that only a seriously scorching-hot heat can produce and that just isn’t achievable with a standard kitchen oven.

But they’re expensive – and time-consuming if you opt for a DIY variety, not to mention they take up a hell of a lot of space in your backyard. Well – I have found the solution – your trusty backyard barbeque!

So ladies and gentlemen – fire up those BBQ’s and prepare to be speaking Italian before the pizza’s been eaten – I promise you’ll never look at your BBQ the same way again!

You will need;

A BBQ with a lid

A couple of terracotta pot plant bases or pizza stones

A stiff metal cleaning brush

A pizza paddle or large flipper to remove the pizzas

Note: If you opt for traditional pizza stones or metal trays place a couple of bricks directly onto the grill and sit your stone or trays on top of them to act as a buffer from the heat. That’s why I love using terracotta planter bases – they have a lip, so if you place them on the grill with their bottoms up you get an instant heat buffer and traditional pizza stones can get cruddy pretty quickly and planter bases are a cheaper alternative. Plus they come in multiple shapes and sizes so you can get creative.

PREPARING YOUR BBQ

Fire up all burners and close the lid until its super-hot then use a stiff brush to clean away any residue on the grill, left-over fat or marinades equal smoke! Place the terracotta bases, external base side up on the grill and close the hood. Allow a good 15 to 20 minutes for the terracotta bases to heat through. The perfect pizza comes from well-heated cooking equipment.

When the terracotta base is scorching hot, slide your prepared pizza onto the cooking base and quickly close the hood - the less heat that escapes the better. Cook until the pizza base is crispy or cooked to your liking.

Pizza Sauce

To half a bottle of Passata cooking sauce add 2 crushed garlic cloves, lots of ground pepper, a little sea salt, a teaspoon of sugar and a handful of finely grated, quality parmesan cheese. Mix and it’s ready – Simple!

Tandoori Pizza

Tandoori Paste

4 Chicken tenderloins cut into 1 ½ cm chunks

Natural yogurt

Pizza base and sauce (see recipe)

Baby spinach leaves

Rocket / Arugula

Mozzarella

Olive oil

Semolina

Mix 2 ½ tablespoons of tandoori paste with the same amount of yogurt in a ziplock bag or bowl, add the chicken and marinate for about an hour in the fridge.

Gently fry the chicken in a little olive oil over medium heat until just cooked.

Roll out your pizza base, sprinkle pizza paddle or cutting board with semolina, place the pizza base over the semolina and cover with pizza sauce and slices of mozzarella.

Bake in a hot BBQ for about 15 minutes or until the base is crisp and cooked through.

Top with baby spinach and the tandoori chicken; don’t add too much sauce to the pizza or it will go soggy.

Serve topped with fresh rocket and dollops of Natural Yogurt.

Fresh Prosciutto Pizza

Prosciutto

Pizza base and sauce (see recipe above for sauce)

1 tub of bocconcini – shredded by hand

Finely grated good-quality parmesan cheese and some shaved parmesan for the finished pizza

Cherry or grape tomatoes – halved

Rocket (Arugula in some parts of the world)

Semolina

Roll out the pizza dough, brush lightly with olive oil and add a light grinding of sea salt around the edges. Sprinkle a cutting board or pizza paddle with semolina then lay the pizza base over it.

Cover pizza base generously with pizza sauce, shredded bocconcini and grated parmesan then place in a hot BBQ for about 15 minutes.

Remove the pizza from the BBQ and top with fresh arugu, grape tomatoes and shaved parmesan cheese.

TIPS Use a veggie peeler to shave the parmesan cheese

By adding semolina to the pizza paddle you’ll prevent the dough from sticking

*First published in My HydroLife Magazine