
For me when it comes to pizza toppings, I adopt the motto ‘less
is more’, believe me this is one of the rare instances in life when I adopt
this term, it’s usually more is more and then a little more for good
measure! But with pizza toppings it
works, the Italians our forefathers of pizza practice this idea and if its good
enough for the Italians it’s good enough for me... you don’t want your pizza
loaded down with toppings to the point of where it gets soggy as the mountain of stuff on top wont be cooked by the time the base is done.
Of course the boyfriend wouldn’t listen to me and LOADED his pizza with
everything he could find in the fridge but hey ya can’t win em all.
The trick to the bbq pizza is that the base is cooked on one side, then you flip it, put the toppings on the cooked side and put
the lid back down, while the base is cooking so are the toppings, the whole
process takes literally 5-6 minutes. I’m
giving you Fred Thompson’s recipe for the dough with some additions from myself
and my own pizza sauce recipe. The toppings are up to you, on this pizza I used caramelized red onion, Parma ham, mushroom
and mozzarella but feel free to experiment thats the fun of it!
160ml warm water
1 package dry active yeast
10oz/315g 00 pizza flour
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Handful fresh thyme, chopped finely
Pizza Sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
Splash of olive oil
I tin of tomatoes
½ tsp. sugar
Salt & fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Serves 4 and 4 small pizzas or 2 hungry people as 2 large
pizzas
To make the pizza dough, a bowl, whisk together the water,
yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy,
about 5 minutes. Add the flour, oil,
salt, pepper and thyme. Stir until the
dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Pull the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead a few times
then form into a ball. Oil a second
bowl, put the ball in the bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in a
warm area for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
To make the pizza sauce, sauté the garlic in the olive oil
on a medium heat for 1-2 minutes, add the tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper
and sugar, allow to simmer for 15 minutes until it has reduced slightly. Add the basil and take off the heat and allow
to cool.
Light or turn on the barbecue to a high heat and allow to
come up to temperature. Oil the grill
grate.
Dump the dough onto a floured work surface, then either divide
in half or in quarters depending on the side of pizza you are making. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin
to the size you want your pizza to be, for the large ones, about 10-12 inches.
Slide the dough onto a sheet of baking paper dusted with
semolina (it keeps it from sticking) and carefully slide the dough from the
sheet onto the grill. Cook until underside
is well marked, about 2 minutes.
Using the
baking sheet, transfer the crusts, grilled side up back to the work surface. Top the crust with the sauce and whatever toppings you are using, drizzle a little olive oil over the top and using the baking sheet, return the crust to the grill, put the lid down and cook until the crust is crisp and the cheese is melted.
Serve at once.
Dough on the grill before its turned |
Adding the toppings to the grilled side |