Bruce Weinstein - Pizza: Grill It, Bake It, Love It!

O f all the cookbooks weve written, this may be the most personal. We cook a lot during the week while recipe testing and tasting. Sundays are usually our time off. Personal time, as it were.

Youd think wed eat out. But no, we fire up the grill or heat up the ovenbecause Sunday night is pizza night. Neighbors and friends in our part of northwestern Connecticut know the drill: there are hot pies to be had around 6:00 P.M.

Were clearly not alone. On average, each American eats more than 46 slices a year, much admittedly from one of the over 62,000 pizzerias across the country. And apparently in the dead of winter, too! More pizza is consumed in January than any other monththanks mostly to the Super Bowl.

While a lot of that zealous consumption consists of frozen and takeout pies, homemade pizza is still the gold standard. Its fresher, more flavorful. The ingredients didnt sit around all day. The spices arent tasteless. Whats more, with homemade pizza, you can top it any way you want.

So here are our favorites, a good selection of what our neighbors and friends have come to love, just about every pizza imaginablefrom the Italian-American classics to modern pies, from appetizer pizzas to full-on, well-stocked deep-dish belly-busters. Along the way, well also help you figure out your own choices by sometimes listing several options for one ingredientfor example, 2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Grana Padano, or aged Asiago, finely grated; or 2 tablespoons minced parsley, or oregano, or rosemary, or a combination of any two. This way, you can twist the flavors to suit your taste. After all, whats life without variation?

Theres not much else to making a great pizza. Start with a good dough, either one you make yourself or one youve picked fresh from a pizza parlor or supermarket. Top it with fresh, flavorful ingredients. Dont skimp on the vegetables. And remember to let the pizza sit for five minutes once out of the oven so a toohot slice doesnt peel off the roof of your mouth.

And as for leftovers? Well, is there a better breakfast?

Consider this a general guide to everything that follows.

Choose how you want to cook the pie: on the grill or in the oven.

Get your crust together, whether made from a fresh dough or a purchased prebaked crust. Fresh doughs can either be homemade or bought at the store. If using a fresh dough, either shape it on a pizza peel or else press it into form on a pizza tray or a large baking sheet.

Create the topping for the pie youve selected.

If the pie has been made on a pizza peel, slip it carefully onto the preheated pizza stone either on the grill or in the oven. If the pie has been made on a pizza tray or a baking sheet, simply place the pie on its sheet on the unheated portion of the grill or right in the oven.

Cook the pizza until its done.

If youre working with a stone, slip the peel back under the pie to take it off the grill or out of the oven. Then gently transfer the cooked pie to a wire rack to cool completely. If youre working with a pizza tray or baking sheet, transfer that tray to a wire rack to cool a minute or two, then slip the pie off the tray and onto the wire rack on its own. A pie that sits on a tray will steam and turn gummy.

Slice the pizza into wedges or sections to serve.

Pizza leftovers are heaven attained, but not by faith alone. Cool the pie completely, then place it on a plate and cover loosely with wax paper. A tight seal can lead to a gummy crust. Leftover pizza from a restaurant is always perfect because it sits in that box with lots of air space around the pie, so that the crust dries out a bit before it turns soggy.

Besides the usualknives, cutting boards, rubber spatulas, and the likepizza making calls for a few specialty tools.

Pizza stone. Although not necessary for pizza making, this large block of stone, ceramic, or synthetic material assures a crisp crust every time. A flat stone gets very hot, sort of like a griddle. It thus replicates a professional pizza oven in your home: the dough lies right on the heated surface of the stone the same way it sits on the floor of a pizza oven. If you dont use a stone, form the crust on a large baking sheet.

As a general rule, buy the largest stone that will fit comfortably on your grill rack and/or in your oven. Its almost impossible to make a 13-inch pizza fit on a 13-inch stone without the pizza itself slipping and dripping off the edge.

The stone must be preheated for 30 to 45 minutes to ensure that its hot enough to cook the crust from the bottom up. If a room-temperature stone is placed in a hot oven or on a grill, that stone may crack. To avoid this catastrophe, place the stone on the unheated section of the grill rack or on the oven rack positioned in the middle of the oven the moment you begin preheating either.

Never place the stone directly over the heat source on the grill. Grill heat is much hotter than oven heat; direct heat can fracture a stone.

A pizza stone will get browned and stained over time. Since its porous, it will absorb almost any food that gets on itmelted cheese, olive oil, burned bits of flour, pepperoni grease. That said, never clean it with soap or other cleaning products. These will get into the pores, only to come back out and onto the crust the next time the stone is heated. Instead, scrape off any browned material while the stone is still hot, then cool the stone before you wipe the stone with a damp paper towel. The stone will sanitize over the intense heat the next time its used.

If you dont want to go to the expense of buying a pizza stone, you can buy inexpensive, unglazed ceramic tiles at most home remodeling stores or almost all tile stores. Look for flat but thick tiles that fit tightly togetheruneven seams can make it difficult to get the pizza on and off them with the peel (see below). Set the tiles tightly against each other on the unheated grill or oven rack, but do not line them up all the way to the sides of your oven. Air must circulate; leave at least two inches of open space around the tiles so heat can rise and move freely in the oven.

Pizza tray. This round baking sheet holds a pie in the oven or on the grill rack without the need for a stone. Simply place the pie on its tray in the oven or over the unheated section of the grill grate. That said, a large, heavy-duty, rectangular, lipped baking sheet will work just as well. No, the pizza will not be round, but the final result will be just as satisfying.

Pizza screen. This wire-mesh, round screen sits right on a pizza stone and lifts the pie an inch or so off the hot surface so that the crust crisps evenly. Youll end up with a more crackerlike crust: less bready and crunchier.

We dont use a pizza screen, preferring instead all those dark blotches across the crusts bottom, the charred bits you can only get if the crust sits directly on a hot surface. Also, a pizza screen can be tricky to work withgetting the topped pie from the peel to the stone and back off again.

Still, if you like crunchy crusts, invest in a screen. Lay the stretched dough on top of a well-oiled screen, build the toppings, then set the pizza on its screen on the peel (see below), and transfer it to the stone. When done, slip the peel back under the screen if a pizza stone is used, thereby removing the screen and the pie together.

The tricky part is then getting the pizza itself off the screen. Sometimes, you can bend the pie up in one section, get a good grip, and get the thing off the screen in one piece with a smooth pull. If the dough has slipped down through the cracks in the screen or fused to it in any way, cut the pizza into wedges and attempt to pry them off the screen one by one.