It was Memorial Day... And I'm old enough to remember when it was called "Decoration Day..." Back when the day was spent honoring our men and women in service, and not just celebrating one more picnic or another sale at the mall.
These days, it seems that everyone grills... And for once I felt the need to join them... But I really didn't want a burger. And I haven't had a hot dog since I read The Jungle in high school!
So what could I grill?
Then, to quote Haley Mills in The Trouble with Angels... I had "the most scathingly brilliant idea..." (Naturally I was hoping it wouldn't get me in trouble like Haley...)
GRILLED PIZZA!!!
So I made the dough (http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/basic_pizza_dough/) and, while it was rising, I read everything I could find about grilling pizzas. The consensus seems to be: stretch the crust really thin; don't try to use too many toppings; if there are any toppings that really need to be cooked, cook them ahead; then be prepared to move fast.
Armed with that info, I started the coals in the chimney... made sure the grate was clean...
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I sautéed 1/2 pound of hot Italian sausage with about 6 cloves of minced garlic in a bit of EVOO, and set it aside to cool.
Next: the sauce question. Did I need it? Did I have any in the freezer?
I found a container of red... something... the paper label had come off. So I thawed it. Turns out it was a roasted red pepper and smoked paprika purée I'd made a while back when there was a big sale on red peppers at the store. What the hell! This was supposed to be an experiment after all! So I tasted a bit of the sauce with a piece of sausage.
Match. Made. In. Heaven. Phew!
So I mixed in just 1/4 cup of the sauce with the sausage, finely chopped a small amount (1/4 C) of fresh mozzarella, and grated an even smaller amount of Parmesan (since we're not using an oven, this is the time for cheese restraint!).
I stretched the dough out to a very thin round, put it on the peel, oiled the top with EVOO... and made sure that all was well in the grill.
Then the scary part: in one swell foop, I flipped the dough onto the grill, oiled side down, put on the lid, and waited, terrified, for 3 minutes...
Then I used the peel to lift the dough off the grill (it didn't stick AT ALL). I took it inside, flipped it so the cooked side was up (yes, fine, it charred a little too much... I'll get better at it!),
lightly sauced and cheesed it...
went back outside, slid it carefully onto the grill, put the lid on... and waited, a little less terrified, for another three minutes...
I peeked, saw that the cheese had melted...
took it off the grill, and let it rest on a rack for 10 minutes.
Now to look at it! We were in a very different world from oven pizza... no bubbles, no real edge, and the crust looked soft...
I was nervous.
Ten minutes later, I cut it into wedges, served it with a lightly dressed salad, and... different world or no...
This was one amazing pizza. Light charcoal flavor... crust not soft, but perfect... not over-topped so the crust/smoke came through loud and clear...and the improvisation with the red pepper purée was a home run.
This was one of those meals where we sat at table for hours talking about it... the hallmark, to me, of a successful experiment!