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Pizza Night on the Primo Ceramic Grill
I don’t know about your kitchen, but my oven does NOT like 500° F for any period of time. That fact plus my love for fire has cemented my ceramic grill as my favorite way to cook pizza. No matter how many people are involved, pizza night is always a party!

Trediberri Barbera d’Alba DOC 2017 (typically $20, available online here)
The vineyards are certified organic Vinified and aged in stainless steel and concrete, this wine emphasizes the bright fruit without any oak overtones.
Eye: Clear, deep ruby.
Nose: Clean, medium+ intensity aromas of ripe red and blue fruit, fresh ripe strawberries, blueberries, blackberries with a touch of pine needles in the background.
Mouth: Dry, medium+ intensity. Flavors follow the aromas with lots of juicy ripe red and blue fruits. Just a bit of leather and earth. Medium+ acidity, low tannins, medium+ body, lively but smooth texture, high alcohol and a medium+ finish.
Conclusion: A very good quality wine, drinkable on its own, but shines with food with lively, refreshing acidity. Best with just a touch of a chill, just below room temperature. Perfect for any food with tomatoes. Not really intended for long term aging, easy to enjoy right now. However, it will continue to please for 5-10 years.

(click on any photo below for a full size slide show)

Nicola’s enthusiasm is contagious!

Nicola Oberto showing Julie the finer points of dropping fruit a few weeks before harvest

Nicola’s father, Federico, a winemaker at one of the major Barolo producers, checks in

Trediberri Winery
I had the good fortune to meet Nicola Oberto of Trediberri at a La Morra tasting on my first visit to Piemonte. Ever since, we have visited whenever we have the opportunity and purchase Trediberri wines every year. We consider them our friends. If your future travels include Piemonte, I would highly recommend you make an appointment for a visit!

For balanced top and bottom browning, I try to get the pizza positioned high in the dome of the ceramic grill

Pizza on a Ceramic Grill
One advantage of a ceramic grill is flexibility. They are equally suited to 15+ hour low and slow smoking sessions at 225° F as 500°F fast and hot pizza oven duty. There are multiple approaches to pizza success, these are some hints I’ve found that work for me:

• Load up lots of charcoal as you’ll be cooking hot and fast
• From bottom to top (see photo above), I place the deflector plates, then the normal rack in the lower (upside down on a Primo) position, rack extender plates, pizza stone. This gets the pizza closer to the hot ceramic in the dome to ensure even top and bottom browning
• Run the grill somewhere between 500-650° F. You’ll need to heat soak the grill for at least 30 minutes at 500° F before you start cooking.
• To help the pizza slide off the peel, you can use cornmeal, rice meal, or parchment under the crust. They all work well.
• Don’t overdress your pizza.
• Pizzas generally cook in 5-7 minutes at this temperature.
• Slide your next pizza on when you pull a pizza off. You only have around 1 hour of cooking time after the heat soak.

Start the dough at 9:00am for dinnertime pizza

Get all your ingredients ready

You’ll never go wrong starting with a classic Margherita pizza!

How do you like your pizza?

Cheese on top or cheese on bottom. What’s your preference?

Pizza Recipes
The first question people ask is for a crust recipe. I’m a big fan of Ken Forkish’s Bread book, and his “The Elements of Pizza“. He gives very detailed instructions on how to handle the dough as well as specific doughs for a wide variety of pizza types. The book is well worth it! That said, the recipe for Saturday Pizza Dough is posted here. Give it a try and if you like it, buy the book!

Beyond that, we make up simple red sauce from tomato sauce and a few spices, then get as creative as time allows for other sauces and toppings. We love trying new combinations, but we find the classics are that for good reason.  If you have a combination you love, definitely let me know in the comments!