RCP: Super Pizza without the Brick Oven

Back in 2003, we visited Italy to see my son who was an instructor at a Cooking School outside of Lucca, Italy. One of the nights there, was a Pizza party. My son along with some of the other chefs prepard hundreds of 8" pizzas made in an outdoor brick oven that was over 125 years old.
Ever since then, my wife and I have been looking at plans to put a brick oven in my backyard. After a lot of searching, we started to get disappointed. The ones that were affordable would not make it through New England winters, the ones that could handle the winters were too pricey. So, we just kept on looking.

In between his job as working as a private chef, my son does a lot of catering. I love to get involved and help him with this. He came up with a plan on making many different types of pizzas and using our outdoor gas grill! After the dough was made , we stretch it out in length to be a couple of inches shorter than the width of the grill and to a width of about 8 inches. We placed two of them on a hot grill, ungreased and let it cook for about 3 minutes, then flipping it over and again 3 minutes. The hardest thing was getting the technique of putting the dough do to start with and flipping it so it maintained its shape. We would do maybe 10 to 15 of these, then bring them back into the house.

Meanwhile we had 3 different types of pizzas to make in mind.

1. Caramelized Red Onions with Blue Cheese and Olives
2. Assorted Mushrooms
3. Tomato sauce with the traditional cheese, sausage, etc

We dressed each half-cooked pizza with the type we wanted and then returned it to the outdoor grill. But by this time, the grill was at a low temperature. Maybe 5 to 10 minutes inside with the cover closed and the pizza was ready.

These pizzas taste so much better than just using the indoor ovens. I've also been experimenting trying to use some wood chips to 'add' some character.

Its not a brick oven pizza, but I love it this way and we didn't have to spend $7K on an outdoor brick oven

You might want to consider a Big Green Egg or some other ceramic cooker. They are around $1000 and can survive a winter anywhere, I have friends that use them year round in Maine and Alaska. -RP

Liz and I have been cooking homemade pizza on our Weber for about 15 years, especially for the kids' birthday parties. Oil and grill one side of the fresh dough, oil the other side and top the first grilled side then back out on the grill. One of my favorite foods.

For an indoor version, I like to preheat the oven to about 400 DegF. However, I make the pizza on an oiled cast iron skillet and start it on the stovetop until the bottom starts to get brown and crispy, then put the skillet in the oven to finish. This technique works very well for "wet" doughs.

For an indoor version, I like to preheat the oven to about 400 DegF. However, I make the pizza on an oiled cast iron skillet and start it on the stovetop until the bottom starts to get brown and crispy, then put the skillet in the oven to finish. This technique works very well for "wet" doughs.

Those of us with self-cleaning electric ovens have several options for getting it hot enough (Dale has tricked his out so that he can cook using the cleaning cycle IIRC) but I just set mine to 550° with a baking stone and cook the pizzas that way. They cook in less than 5 min. under those conditions and get nicely caramelized. For that authentic char, though, there's no substitute for grilling the pizza!

Mark Lipton

(Dale has tricked his out so that he can cook using the cleaning cycle IIRC)

YRI (You Remember Incorrectly)

This is how urban rumors get started. What you recall is probably me recounting the story from one of Jeffrey Steingarten's books where he nearly burned down his aprtment tried to use self-clean cycle to get hot enough by bypassing the lock feature. Funny story (he's a good writer). Me, when I want hot it's gas range at 550, or long preheat on Weber gas. I'm not very brave re my house.

During the winter we put a baking stone in the oven, and cook the pizza directly on it at 450 degrees F.

(Dale has tricked his out so that he can cook using the cleaning cycle IIRC)

YRI (You Remember Incorrectly)


Oops! You know, having been in your kitchen not that long ago, I should have recalled that your oven looked to be gas. (now you can correct me on that count, too!)

Mark Lipton

Apparently Emile Henry now makes a pizza stone that could go directly on the grill without cracking; I will try it once the weather gets a little warmer.

You might want to consider a Big Green Egg or some other ceramic cooker. They are around $1000 and can survive a winter anywhere, I have friends that use them year round in Maine and Alaska. -RP

Randy, we also use our Big Green Egg for pizza. I can get the temp close to 800 degrees and it's about as "authentic" brick oven as I've found.

Drew

I know of one guy that takes his to 1000 degrees but I think that is pretty extreme. I do my pies between 500 and 600. -RP

Apparently Emile Henry now makes a pizza stone that could go directly on the grill without cracking; I will try it once the weather gets a little warmer.

Jacques,

For a pizza stone (and for a lot of other uses too) I find that a kiln shelf will work very well. They come in all sizes and in several shapes as well. I use a 16" round as a heat deflector/diffuser on my Ceramic grill. I seldom get it above 750 degrees, but haven't had any trouble with the shelf. they comer in all sizes up to at least 26" and considering how hot a kiln gets unless I get careless I expect it to last me the rest of my life. BTW, IIRC it cost me $25.

I never even thought of that, Bob. You probably get a great crust with that.

Another good method is to find an area rich in volcanic soil and from there to select 3-4 kilos (6.5-10 lbs) of tuff (the small volcanic rocks that can be found in such areas), to place those smoothly on the floor of the oven and to bake your pizza right on those. The tuff holds and exaggerates heat beautifully and does a beautiful pizza.

When I was living in Europe, I collected such stones (none larger than a baby's hand) at the base of Mt Etna and here in Israel such stones are easy to come by in many locations on the Golan Heights and on the Makura Ranch in central Israel.

Best
Rogov