Sunday, April 24, 2011

Grilled Pizza Party

grilled pizza with artichoke hearts, basil, mozzarella, and goat cheese

My friends and I have a lot of really fun traditions: Swing Beach visits, pool tour and spring break grilled pizzas.  This spring break was overcast, cold, and rainy.  It looked like grilled pizzas weren't in the cards for us, but Mike spotted sunshine in the forcast on Saturday so, in his words, we needed to 'Carpe Pizza,' which is exactly what we did! In this post the Test-Nest will give you the tools you need to through your own grilled pizza party, how to grill pizzas and our professional pizza grilling tips.

Party Planning

1.  The grill: You need a gas grill.  Any old one will do, in fact, the first time I grilled pizza I did it on one of these mini propane grills. Just make sure your propane tank is full.  Last time we grilled pizzas Andrew's pizza only got half done because we ran out of propane, and he had to finish it in the oven. :(

2. The people: Usually when it comes to parties, I say the more the merrier.  This is not necessarily the case when grilling pizzas.  If you have too many people, you could be waiting a long time until it's your turn to grill.  We usually have 5 or 6 people, which works just fine.

3.  Ingredients:  Our parties are BYO toppings.  That way you get an eclectic mix of toppings and it helps you to try new and interesting combos.  Take a look at these beautiful toppings (Eva, nice plate arranging!) . . . pesto, basil, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, onions, peppers, zucchini, olives, prosciutto, pine nuts, roasted garlic, etc!

Toppings
 4.  The dough:  I make the dough ahead of time.  I use Ina Garten's pizza dough recipe which can be found here.  I like to plan on people eating a lot, so I doubled the recipe. If needed, we could make 12 pizzas.  We ended up making 9 and there were 5 of us. 

Grilling the Pizzas (pizza models are Mike Morell and James Gavin-Smyth)

1. Create a game plan for what you are going to top your pizzas with.  Once the dough is on the grill, you will need to work quickly.
Mike and James put the dough on the grill.

2. Put your pizza dough on the grill.  Brush with olive oil. 

Gently brush with a little olive oil.

3.  After one minute.  Turn the dough over, brush with olive oil and top!

James and Mike are extremely skilled and calm pizza toppers. 

4.  Close the lid of the grill and let the pizzas cook for 5 minutes.

Look, one handed!

5.  Eat your pizza!

Biting into a slice of delicious grilled pizza!
6.  Did you save room for desert?  Probably not, but who can resist the dynamic duo's, Mike and Eva,  homemade ice cream sandwiches.  Yeah, I said it, homemade!  Mike made lemon ice cream and Eva made ginger snap cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  These two are never afraid of a new adventure in the kitchen or in life (Do I hear guest bloggers at the Test-Nest?  I think so.)
Delicious and so refreshing!
Grilled Pizza Helpful Hints

1.  Be prepared.  James advises grillers to put their ingredients on their plates before starting to grill, that way you aren't rushing around.

2.  Avoid sodium overload!  Eva says to make sure that your pizza toppings aren't all salty.  Olives and prosciutto may be a good thought, but they are both quite salty and can distract from the good flavor of the pizza.

3.  Top to the edge.  No need to to create a big outer crust for your pizza.  Take those toppings all the way out to the edge!

4.  Is there such thing as too much cheese?  Yes!  Let the other toppings do the work.  Plus if you go crazy with the cheese it hinders the cooking time.  Your pizza will burn while you wait for all that cheese to melt.

5.  Let it get dark.  Now you don't want your pizza to burn, but you want that baby crispy like in Old Napoli, so some dark brown on the bottom of your pizza is a good thing.

James displayed a pizza bottom done to perfection!


5.  Ambiance.  Floating candles in a rain-filled fire pit adds to an already delightful evening.




So have you already started to put together your grilled pizza party?  How about those toppings?  What are you going to bring?  Make sure you share your yummy pizza combo by commenting on this post.   That way we can all share our grilled pizza adventures!

Happy grilling!

Max is highly satisfied!









1 comment:

  1. I love all different combos, but I love chicken, peppers, basil, and fresh mozzarella. These photos make me hungry!

    ReplyDelete

Leave us a message! Tell us what you think!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Grilled Pizza Party

grilled pizza with artichoke hearts, basil, mozzarella, and goat cheese

My friends and I have a lot of really fun traditions: Swing Beach visits, pool tour and spring break grilled pizzas.  This spring break was overcast, cold, and rainy.  It looked like grilled pizzas weren't in the cards for us, but Mike spotted sunshine in the forcast on Saturday so, in his words, we needed to 'Carpe Pizza,' which is exactly what we did! In this post the Test-Nest will give you the tools you need to through your own grilled pizza party, how to grill pizzas and our professional pizza grilling tips.

Party Planning

1.  The grill: You need a gas grill.  Any old one will do, in fact, the first time I grilled pizza I did it on one of these mini propane grills. Just make sure your propane tank is full.  Last time we grilled pizzas Andrew's pizza only got half done because we ran out of propane, and he had to finish it in the oven. :(

2. The people: Usually when it comes to parties, I say the more the merrier.  This is not necessarily the case when grilling pizzas.  If you have too many people, you could be waiting a long time until it's your turn to grill.  We usually have 5 or 6 people, which works just fine.

3.  Ingredients:  Our parties are BYO toppings.  That way you get an eclectic mix of toppings and it helps you to try new and interesting combos.  Take a look at these beautiful toppings (Eva, nice plate arranging!) . . . pesto, basil, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, onions, peppers, zucchini, olives, prosciutto, pine nuts, roasted garlic, etc!

Toppings
 4.  The dough:  I make the dough ahead of time.  I use Ina Garten's pizza dough recipe which can be found here.  I like to plan on people eating a lot, so I doubled the recipe. If needed, we could make 12 pizzas.  We ended up making 9 and there were 5 of us. 

Grilling the Pizzas (pizza models are Mike Morell and James Gavin-Smyth)

1. Create a game plan for what you are going to top your pizzas with.  Once the dough is on the grill, you will need to work quickly.
Mike and James put the dough on the grill.

2. Put your pizza dough on the grill.  Brush with olive oil. 

Gently brush with a little olive oil.

3.  After one minute.  Turn the dough over, brush with olive oil and top!

James and Mike are extremely skilled and calm pizza toppers. 

4.  Close the lid of the grill and let the pizzas cook for 5 minutes.

Look, one handed!

5.  Eat your pizza!

Biting into a slice of delicious grilled pizza!
6.  Did you save room for desert?  Probably not, but who can resist the dynamic duo's, Mike and Eva,  homemade ice cream sandwiches.  Yeah, I said it, homemade!  Mike made lemon ice cream and Eva made ginger snap cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  These two are never afraid of a new adventure in the kitchen or in life (Do I hear guest bloggers at the Test-Nest?  I think so.)
Delicious and so refreshing!
Grilled Pizza Helpful Hints

1.  Be prepared.  James advises grillers to put their ingredients on their plates before starting to grill, that way you aren't rushing around.

2.  Avoid sodium overload!  Eva says to make sure that your pizza toppings aren't all salty.  Olives and prosciutto may be a good thought, but they are both quite salty and can distract from the good flavor of the pizza.

3.  Top to the edge.  No need to to create a big outer crust for your pizza.  Take those toppings all the way out to the edge!

4.  Is there such thing as too much cheese?  Yes!  Let the other toppings do the work.  Plus if you go crazy with the cheese it hinders the cooking time.  Your pizza will burn while you wait for all that cheese to melt.

5.  Let it get dark.  Now you don't want your pizza to burn, but you want that baby crispy like in Old Napoli, so some dark brown on the bottom of your pizza is a good thing.

James displayed a pizza bottom done to perfection!


5.  Ambiance.  Floating candles in a rain-filled fire pit adds to an already delightful evening.




So have you already started to put together your grilled pizza party?  How about those toppings?  What are you going to bring?  Make sure you share your yummy pizza combo by commenting on this post.   That way we can all share our grilled pizza adventures!

Happy grilling!

Max is highly satisfied!









1 comment:

  1. I love all different combos, but I love chicken, peppers, basil, and fresh mozzarella. These photos make me hungry!

    ReplyDelete

Leave us a message! Tell us what you think!