I fricking love pizza. Seriously. I could eat it for every meal and still not be sick of it?and I pretty did just that in college. Birthday parties at Showbiz pizza place, dates at Pizza Hut, a job at Nancy?s Pizza in high school?starting to see a pattern here? Crispy thin crust, crusty deep dish, stuffed pizza, Chicago-style?oh god, now I can?t stop thinking about a Lou Malnati?s Chicago style with pepperoni and sausage, all that cheesy, sweet and salty goodness melting into the crust that is so perfectly crisp, you?d think God herself came down and personally cooked the pizza with an oven fueled by angels and little happy babies. Mmmmm, cheesy happy babies? But I digress. Ever since we got our kick ass charcoal grill, I?ve been dying to try grilling a pizza on it. Now, I must admit, I bought the dough?but it came from a gourmet bakery. And before any of you high-faluting gourmands out there reem me out for that, frankly, you need to shut your trap, because I don?t care how easy it is to make the dough. When I am knee-deep in 40 page papers about how vegetarians are really people with anxiety issues and a crap ton of essays on the globalization of food, $3 premade gourmet pizza dough will do just fine. Again, I digress. So the partner fired up the grill, and I got down to my bad ass pizza-making self. Most recipes call for cooking the dough on both sides on the grill, and then adding the toppings and cooking again until everything is warmed and melty. A little toss of the dough, some olive oil, and they were ready to go on the grill. But we neglected to spread the coals around the grill (stupid newbies!) and this is what we ended up with:
Frustrated but by no means deterred, we spread out the coals, let the grill cool down a bit, and tried again with much more success. Score. We added the toppings, but by then, the grill had completely cooled off, so we ended up tossing them in the oven anyways. The first pizza was Italian sausage, sun dried tomatoes, caramelized balsamic onions, parmesan, and some green olives. No sauce on this one, so I guess you could call it more of a flat bread than a pizza.
Here’s a peek of what’s underneath the skirt:
The next one was my ode to Australia: I layered sour cream and fresh chives on the bottom, sweet chili sauce, chicken, grilled red onions, a little parmesan, and avocadoes on the top. Aussies LOVE sweet chili sauce, especially with sour cream and avocadoes. They eat them with fries, on sandwiches, flavored potato chips?think of it as the buffalo wing and blue cheese flavors in the U.S. This one was my favorite.
And the last was a dessert pizza: chocolate peanut butter base and caramelized bananas on top. I just mixed some Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread with peanut butter, milk and a little confectioner?s sugar for the base and pan-fried the bananas in butter. Soooooooo good. A few too many carbs at the end of a carb-loaded meal, but definitely a keeper.
But I still need me some Lou Malnati?s?do you think the whole 30 minute delivery or your pizza is free thing works when you live in Australia? ~LTG
