PIZZA THURSDAY!!
Tasty Thursday, edition 22
YOU SEE: Some large amoeba
I SEE: Bring on pizza night!
***
When we lived on land, we had a rousing tradition of Pizza Fridays, where we’d have 30 or 40 (sometimes more) people over to the house for homemade pizza. I’d make all the dough and the sauce, people would bring toppings and ingredients, salads and desserts and drinks. “First pies will be out at 6,” I’d say in the email invitation, and usually by 8 the last ones were on the counter.
Our kitchen had been redone almost with pizza nights in mind, though we didn’t start the tradition until after our second cruise, the one with the kids aboard. An L-shaped “galley” kitchen, of sorts, with the wall side granite and the island side a 13-foot long stretch of maple butcher block. And we are not people for whom such a counter is precious in any way. We’d chosen it specifically so anyone could help cook, could reach for a knife and cut (not meat, but anything else) directly on that counter. The scars meant use and love and deliciousness.
I’d pull pizzas right out of the oven and slide them onto the counter nearest the sliding glass door that led to the backyard, then someone would grab the pizza wheel and cut. The first ones were always plain cheese - because the kids were always ravenous and ignoring any salads or nibbles on the table in the other room - and they were gone almost as soon as they were cut. If someone wanted a special kind (no tomato sauce, please) I made sure to let them know before it came out of the oven, so they could be there to pounce and not miss out.
Some nights, Jeremy would even fire up the grill and we’d have dueling ovens going, if you count the grill as an oven. Pizza on the grill is a revelation of blistering edges and skimpy toppings, but it takes a little bit of a rhythm and practice.
On the boat now, we still try to do pizza nights on Fridays. Lately it’s been too hot, though; the idea of leaving the oven on for 2 hours in the evening starts the perspiration flowing like Pavlov’s dog and the salivation thing. After too much frustration with overpriced marine grills, we’d given up and left the grill back in the US. When friends on a catamaran invited us for grilled pizza night a week ago, we jumped at the chance. Yum.
Here on Tongareva (Penrhyn), in the small village of Te Tautua (pop. 25), Kura is kind of the matriarch, She welcomes cruisers in with open arms, sharing knowledge and food and joy. She even offers up the use of her washing machine for big loads, and waves off any offer of payment. Trying to figure out how to be generous with her is a challenge.
She does have an outdoor cooking apparatus, as I call it - a modified steel barrel with a couple of pieces of rebar across it, where a cooking pot can sit over a fire made of coconut husks. No oven other than a small air fryer. I wonder, I said to Jeremy, if we could offer to make pizza for her, on the grill?
Yes! Tomorrow? She said with a grin. We’ll invite everyone who lives on this side.
“So, maybe 10 people?”
“Maybe. Maybe more.” She started counting, then stopped at a dozen. “Maybe others too.”
***
Okay, then. No idea how many people we’re cooking for, no idea how coconut husks burn in any case, no idea how exactly this oil barrel BBQ might work in terms of a grate over the top. Sounds about like cruising, where you need to be flexible and really trust that things might well work out better than you had worried about.
We went in for a reconnaissance run and were relieved to find that Kura had found a grate to go over the top of the barrel. The big cooking pot had a domed enough lid that we could prop it up on a couple of stones on that grate, forming a sort of an oven-ish thing that would melt the cheese. Friends on Makae offered up a bag of charcoal; Kura had “the boys” get a wheelbarrow full of coconut husks.
The concrete fish cleaning station was a perfect prep space, large enough for cutting boards and makeshift pizza peels. I’ve never prepped pizza with a green flash sunset. Or with sharks lurking in the water behind me.
Helpers abounded, learning to cut pizza, spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese.
And when we sat down at the table, a group of maybe 15 of us, it was with the same sense of joy and abundance that has been present at any pizza night I’ve ever been a part of.
Maybe pizza is a universal love language.
***
Pizza dough (specially for the grill ) This makes 4 pizzas, enough for 3 people.
1 c water
2 TBS olive oil
2 c+ 2 TBS bread flour (if you have it)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
Mix water and oil in a measuring cup
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
Add liquid in a slow stream to the dry ingredients. Add flour as needed to keep it from sticking. *This is super easy in a food processor, a little more messy if you don’t have one.
Knead for 5- 10 minutes (or process for a minute), adding only as much flour as you need. This is a sticky dough. I recommend once you get the dough into a shaggy ball, oil your hands to help with the kneading and not adding too much flour.
Oil that large bowl (I oil my hands over the bowl, which usually adds just the right amount of oil to the bowl) and put the dough into it, turning to coat.
Cover with a dish towel and let rise for 1.5-2 hours.
Dump it onto a floured board, cut into 4 pieces, tuck each piece into a ball. Let rise for about 20 minutes, covered.
MEANWHILE PREHEAT THE GRILL TO HOT. Clean the grates.
Roll out the dough you like (which means amoeba shapes are fine), flouring the board to keep it from sticking.
Stack on layers of parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal. Best to only do 2 in a stack; ideally you won’t stack them at all but there’s a space consideration for sure.
Put each piece of dough directly on the grill grate, no oil needed. Grill until it starts to bubble (have a sharp knife or fork ready to pop the bubbles) and is nicely browned on the bottom (a little char never hurt anyone either), then remove it from the grill.
Flip the dough over (off of the grill!) so it’s cooked side UP. Dress that cooked side with garlic oil, tomato sauce (or diced tomatoes), cheese etc. Be spare with the toppings!
Slide the dough back onto the grill and cover, letting the bottom side get crispy and the cheese melty.
Tips: Easiest done with a couple of people, one to deal with the dough and one to deal with the grill. Jeremy and I have this down to a lovely dance.
We tend to kind of batch cook these, doing all the first sides first and then the topped sides.
On a large grill you can do 2 pies at once. This makes the process faster.
I actually have written an entire pizza cookbook, mostly for land-based people; if you’d like it, just let me know and I’ll send it over.
I love everything about this! And I'm so glad to have experienced Pizza Night at casa Waters with the 13' maple counter, too.
I absolutely think pizza is a universal love language. Yummy, warm story.