Here’s a little advice from the 225 Club Test Kitchen: Forget the $10 boxed pizza you buy at the game in an alcoholic haze.
Make your own pizza on your grill before the game – topped to your liking, fresh and piping hot. That’s right. Pizza on your grill.
The Cold, Hard Football Facts have eaten at Al Forno several times. The pizza is spectacular. So we called chef Brian Kingsford, and he was cool enough to share his recipe with us. But the recipe is not so important. You can make your pizza flavored to your liking. What is more important is the technique for cooking dough on a grill.
Here are the basics:
- Use a wood grill. Propane will get the job done, but you won’t get that smoky crust and aroma that make grilled pizza so fantastic.
- If you’re not that adept with hand-kneaded pizza dough – and there is something of an art to it – use a pre-made pizza dough like a Boboli. It will work fine.
- Most supermarkets and Italian specialty stores sell pre-made balls of dough that you can stretch out yourself. It’s a good way to get some practice without the pain in the ass of making your own dough from scratch.
- Use high-quality ingredients, like hand-shredded cheeses. The shredded cheese in those pre-packaged bags tastes phony, in the estimation of the Cold, Hard Football Facts. And believe you us, we know our way around cheese – from pecorino to pick-up lines.
- Build a fire on one side of the grill, and keep the other side cool.
- Make a practice pizza or two before your tailgate or cookout. Each grill is different and practice will help insure you have your timing down. Hey, the last thing you need is to look like a rookie by blowing it on game day. You have enough problems already.
Here’s the Al Forno recipe for grilled pizza:
- 1 pizza dough or suitable pre-made substitute (Boboli, etc.)
- 6 oz. grated cheese (a blend of cheddar, mozzarella and pecorino)
- 4 to 5 oz. arribiata sauce (a spicy tomato sauce)
- 1 medium yellow or red tomato, sliced
- Fresh basil, roughly chopped
- Fresh ground pepper
- Olive oil
- Corn meal
Build fire on one side of grill, leaving the other side cool. Brush one side of dough very lightly with olive oil. Place oiled side of dough on hot side of grill. Brush top side of dough with oil as it cooks. Cook until dough stiffens and forms grill marks, about two minutes.
Remove dough and place cooked side up on flat cookie sheet (if using fresh pizza dough, generously cover cookie sheet with corn meal so that dough will slide back off onto grill). Spoon thin layer of sauce over cooked side of dough, top with cheese, tomatoes, basil, pepper and other chosen herbs and spices (oregano, rosemary, etc.).
Slide dough back on to hot side of grill. Cook about two minutes, until bottom stiffens and grill marks form. Slide dough over to cool side of grill, close grill top and continue cooking until cheese melts, about five minutes. Remove, slice and stuff your face.
