Grilled pizza

Did I miss the grilled pizza trend? Was it even a trend? I remember friends of Susan's family grilling pizza ten years ago or more, thinking that it was kind of interesting.... then forgot all about it.

I began making focaccia over the last year. An easy yeast bread, it is essentially the same recipe as pizza dough. One loaf equals two pizzas.

We have many beautiful tomatoes now, and a large crop of basil. I've also been making fresh cheese-- a batch I made with raw milk was delicious-- so putting 4 and 4 together, I decided to try my luck.

A little research indicated that yes, you can plop raw pizza dough directly down on the hot grates, and it will neither stick nor fall between the grates. I can confirm this. After the dough is cooked on the bottom, it is easily flipped with the help of a spatula: at this point, the toppings are added. The lid goes back down and as the bottom of the dough cooks, the toppings cook (or at least warm). My fresh cheese did not melt but maintained distinct curds.

Batch one had sliced tomatoes (which fresh cheese and basil). Susan deemed it "not oily enough," so I poured a little olive oil on and a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt, which perked things up immeasurably. I found that the tomatoe skins would detach from the pulp, however, and I found this distracting.

For batch two, I used some tomato confit. Earlier in the week I'd peeled and quatered tomatoes, and poached them gently in olive oil. Their flavor concentrates a little (though not as much as roasting them). You can then store them in their poaching liquid. They're very soft and, well, oily. In a good way.

This batch was much better.

The pizza smoky, crunchy but yeilding with a good chew, and rich from the oiled tomatoes.

It is definitely an experiment I would repeat.