Long Weekend Margherita Pizza

Profile picture for user Song Of The Baker
Song Of The Baker on 3 Sep 2014 at 17:50

After taking the summer off of baking bread (too hot in house) I took the opportunity of our recent long weekend to bake up some Neopolitan style pizzas on the grill.  As usual with my pizzas, I used unglazed quarry tiles and a grill flare-up method to re-create that fire hot environment a traditional forno would give.  No shots of the wild mushroom, goat cheese and arugula pizzas I made, but here are the Margheritas.  The very puffed up cornichione makes the pizzas look like the crust was thick and deep, but it was actually about a 1/4 of an inch thick, just the way we like it.

John

would be proud to have these named after her.  Just perfect crust and well topped.  Tough to beat a classic.  Glad to see you back.  We Love pizza on the grill too.  Glad to see you back John and

Happy baking

Thanks dabrowny.  Good to hear from you too.  My few visits to Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix sure kicked me in the butt to perfect my pizzas.  Damn that man is a genius.  Have you been there yet?

John

Margherita is my favorite pizza. If it's on the menu I have to order it.  Yours looks just perfect!

:) Mary

That's one damn fine looking pizza! Using your grill to bake this really did trick! Can I order a capricciosa for your next pizza bake? Please.

Michael

Thanks Michael.  Having done a few spectacular Panettone, I am sure you know your Italian cuisine quite well.

I have been wanting to play around with some cured meat toppings, so I will have to give that a try soon.

Happy Baking and good to hear from you.

John

Thank you.  It took me a while to get the results I wanted in recreating that super hot forno oven type bake on the crust with just a simple backyard grill.  I would be happy to share.  You can check out some info on my system on previous posts of mine here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38127/stone-ground-whole-wheat-margherita-pizza

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34035/shrimp-pesto-pizza-grill

Basically, I just use preheated unglazed quarry tiles (pizza stone would be fine)  I usually preheat them on the highest heat for no less than 30 minutes - and yes, it makes a huge difference to preheat that long:

To recreate the extra hot heat to char up the crust more, I splash some oil onto the grill side opposite the side where the tiles are.  This creates some flames which boosts up the heat and singes the crust.  I just make sure that the flames don't hit the crust directly on the sides or they'll burn.  Also to note, I use parchment paper ALWAYS.  This avoids any sticking and transfer problems.  Before using parchment, I used to screw up the transfer from peel (I also use a large cutting board) to tiles and it would ruin the shape, fall off the tiles, etc.  Once the crust has set, I remove the parchment paper from under the crust and let the pizza finish cooking directly on the tiles.

Hope this helps!

Good luck :)

John

Oh man, your margheritas looks sooo damn good! No restaurant or pizzeria in town here makes Neopolitan-style pizzas and I've been cravin' for them.

I look forward to seeing your future bakes. Never fails to make me hungry. :)

Cheers,

Zita

Thank you Khalid.  Feels too long since baking and posting.  Been busy with the business and finalizing our website, etc.  Looking forward to seeing your posts and catching up on your recent ones.

John