disaster

Making this pizza was so exhausting that it drained all my energy and I didn't have enough left after dinner to write it up. What a pain in the ass. Its only redeeming quality (and, I suppose, the most important one) was that it did taste incredible. Juicy grilled pineapple, sweet caramelized onions, crisp and salty pancetta, finished off with spots of buttery-soft Camembert cheese.

I figured that cooking the pizza on the grill would be better than heating up the house by baking it in the oven, but after wrestling with the dough over the hot grill I decided I was wrong. I would have gladly taken a hot kitchen over the nearly-disastrous juggling act that took place on the patio.

The source of this recipe is probably the last place I would go for cooking tips. Let's just say it's from a certain magazine that some men claim to "read" just for the articles. Um. Right. It was given to me by one of my regular bar guests after I had told him about my last pizza-grilling mishap (if anyone else had offered up a magazine clipping with a scantily-clad woman on one side I would have been thoroughly weirded out, but I'm used to this guy and quite frankly, I wouldn't expect any less from him).

The fact that this recipe originally came from an actual cookbook convinced me that it might be worth a try. The technique is nothing new. Grill the dough on one side, flip it over, add toppings, then grill the other side. Sounds simple enough, right? The reason I never tried this method before is that I was afraid that the toppings wouldn't stay put (I prefer when the toppings bake into the dough, becoming one with the pizza, if you will). Little did I know this would be the least of my worries. In fact, getting the finished pizza off the grill in (almost) one piece felt like a remarkable feat.

This experience would have benefited from better planning, for one, and a lot more prep area outside. The pineapple should have been sliced thinner also. Half inch slices, like the recipe states, are way too thick for this thin pizza, although thin slices would have been more difficult to grill without falling apart. The best solution would have been to chop up all the toppings so the pizza would be easier to eat. Less photogenic, but sometimes that's the price you have to pay.

I haven't made pizza in a while, so I decided it was time. Unfortunately, when it was time to preheat the oven it decided not to cooperate. So I took the pizza stone out to the grill and fired it up. I guess I let the stone get too hot, because the pizza was on it for all of 3 minutes and the entire bottom turned black.

That didn't stop us from devouring it though.



Well, the top anyway.

I'm not really sure how I would remedy this for next time. Don't preheat it for so long? Don't preheat it at all? Preheat on medium heat instead of high?

Buy a new stove?

One thing is for sure. I should always make a double batch of dough. Just in case.

Also, I think I try to rush the dough too much. I never really get the pizza as big and thin as I want it to be, but if I would just let the dough rest it would probably cooperate more.

On another note, the bottle of wine we opened tonight was fantastic and Matt suggested I write a little note about it here so we know to buy it again. It's a 2007 Misterio Malbec by Finca Flichman. I'm no wine connoisseur so I'll just leave it at that.


» Recipe for Pizza with Tomato Slices, Fresh Mozzarella, and Basil

It was going so well until I decided to see what would happen if I didn't grease the pans. Stupid.



Fortunately, I made two loaves, and one of them survived. I guess the failure will become a year's supply of bread crumbs. Or croutons. Or... bread puddingbread pudding? Hmm. Things are looking up already.

The recipe itself seems to be a good one. The loaves rose nice and high, and I cut into the broken one to reveal a great texture with no huge air bubbles. Next time I will be sure to grease the pan like a good girl.


» Recipe for Oatmeal Bread: The one where curiosity killed the bread