We had a quiet day at home. Neither of us left the property. We worked outside for a while adjusting the irrigation system. Can you even believe the first time we needed to water our landscaping this year was July 10th? At least our water bill will be respectable.
We watched the US women beat Brazil in the World Cup - in one of the most exciting soccer games ever! How exciting! DT rode the exercise bike, but I had a day of rest... so now I am exactly even/on task in my goal to run 60 miles this month. The weather has been so nice the past two days, the deck is completely dry and we were able to move the furniture back! Dinner outside again?
I have previously written about cooking pizza on the grill outside. This is a great option if it is too hot outside to bring your oven to 450-500° - or you just want to have fun on your deck or patio. Though you can google about cooking a pizza directly on the grill rack, I am a total wimp and use a pizza stone. I bring my wimpiness up to a new level and roll my pizza dough out on a circle of parchment paper - so much easier (and safer) to transfer the unbaked pizza to the hot stone.
I baked two 10-inch pies tonight. The dough I made this afternoon was one of the best I have ever concocted too. I used 1¼ cups water, 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, a rounded teaspoon of Kosher salt, 2 teaspoons yeast, about 1/3 cup semolina (pasta) flour and enough "00" flour to bring it all together to a soft dough... probably about 1¼ cups of flour. "00" flour is sometimes difficult to find in America. The wheat is milled so fine, the flour resembles baby powder. King Arthur mills it now, but I usually just pick it up when I find myself in an Italian specialty grocer (where I happen to find myself way too often). This recipe will make two small, or one extra-large pizza.
DT fired-up the grill and brought the temperature to over 450 degrees.
Then we carefully transferred the pizza - using the parchment paper - onto the hot pizza stone. The first pizza had a rich garlicky tomato sauce base, topped with shredded (dry) mozzarella, anchovy fillets, red onion, red pepper, dried chilies and topped with a bit of shredded parmesan.
This pizza needed 10 minutes on the grill. It was super delicious.
And this pizza was super salty! Those anchovies were really salty... but so yummy!
The second pizza was a classic Pizza Margherita - tomato, mozzarella and basil pizza - our favorite pizza of all time. I only had teeny little mozzarella "pearls", but they really worked well. Though not traditional, I had a little extra parmesan, so sprinkled it over the top.
Hello!This pizza required about 14 minutes on the grill. Why 4 minutes longer than the other pizza? I have no idea.
After the pizza leaves the "outdoor oven", I topped it with fresh basil. So pretty.
What did I serve with dinner, besides an icy Antinori white Toscana?
Watermelon and strawberries from the farmers market.Until my next update, I remain, your cheesy correspondent.