This will get you to the mythical 90 second neopolitan pie (assuming a proper dough), with proper char and flavor, for a small investment ($150 or so, possibly less). It's extraordinary. The only disadvantage is that it's 1 pie at a time, so the cook usually isn't eating, he's cooking and serving.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.goo...onemolinari/LBE
You'll need:
18.5" weber kettle grill (standard grill at home depot)
1 6" unglazed quarry tile (home depot)
Bayou Classic Burner -
http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-SP10-High-Pressure-Outdoor/dp/B000291GBQ/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1220027326&sr=8-2
Instant non-contact temperature gun -
http://www.amazon.com/Raytek-MT6-MiniTemp-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B000O80B5M/ref=pd_cp_hg_1?pf_rd_p=413863601&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0002198GY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=06JJE2PPDFZG7NV3Y3AD OR http://www.amazon.co...20027403&sr=1-1 they seem to be pretty much the same.
15-16" pizza stone. I used the Old Stone Oven round pizza stone, 16". Google for it. It's expensive, but about 5 times heavier than the cheap ones, and i cracked 3 of the cheap ones before i bought this one. I think Gadget Geek had some links for some serious pizza stones as well.
16" aluminum pizza pan (like the ones they serve pizza on at restaurants). You can get them for about $3 at restaurant supply stores..otherwise you'll have to mail order it.
Heavy duty aluminum foil.
I think that's it. The assembly is as follows.
Cut a 10" or so hole in the bottom of the kettle grill. Use a bowl or something to give you an outline to cut to. Try to make it so the hole is "flat" relative to the grill...so it sits level when you put it on the burner. I'm not sure if I'm explaining what I mean.
Where ever you're going to cut the grill, cover it in masking tape so the enamel doesn't crack and propagate all over the grill. How you cut the hole is up to you. I used heavy duty dremel cutoff bits..it took about 10 of them! When I ran out of those I tried a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, and it seemed to sail through the stuff like butter...but I didn't use it much as I was basically done. Wish I had!
Cut a vent like in my pictures on the side of the top, across from the premade top vent. My vent is about 1.5" by 8". I don't think size is super critical...just approximately that size should be fine. The original top vent is always closed.
Line all inside surfaces with HD aluminum foil..shiny side viewable.
Drill a hole in the center of you 16" pizza plate/pan and a hole in the center of the lid too. Try to make this centered. You can do this by taking the plastic off the handle, and using the screw hole that is on the metal handle as a guide. Mount the pizza pan to the top using a long bolt and a wingnut like you see in my pics. The goal of this is to reduce the volume of the top lid where hot air would end up. I reduced it even further but also putting in the lid the ash catcher that came with the grill. That's that weird small dome you see in my lid picture. If you want to do that too, just make a hole in the ash catcher, and use a longer bolt to go through that, then the pizza pan then the lid.
The grill comes with 2 grates. The cooking grate and the charcoal grate. Put the charcoal grate in the grill, and then put an UNGLAZED 6" quarry tile (available at SOME home depots) on the charcoal grate, directly above the burner. I'm using this so that the burner flame doesn't impact the pizza stone.
Put the cooking grate in put the pizza stone in.
Put the pizza stone towards the front/vent size of the grill, so there is a larger opening on the back side of the grill between the stone and the grill walls, which will force the hot air up on the back side, then out towards the front vent and over the pizza.
Close it up, light the fire, and on low-medium heat preheat for about 15 minutes...raise the heat a little, and keep preheating until your stone
is at about 750 deg (use the new temp. gun).
It takes a good 25-30 minutes to preheat it somewhat gently and so that the stone is pretty evenly heated and doesn't crack.
Slide your pizza on, close the lid quickly, and CRANK up the gas to max. This will create a huge roaring flame that will generate tons of heat,
that will be forced over the pizza and out the vent. Watch out...the air coming out is REALLY hot.
You'll have to turn your pizza about every 30-45 seconds to get it to char up evenly on the top. Do this by quickly opening the lid, grabbing the pie with some tongs, twisting it then closing the lid. Repeat as necessary. The pizza should cook in about 1.75-2.5 minutes. Depends a lot on your dough and your toppings. You can watch the pizza as it cooks and chars through the vent.
The goal is to get the bottom charry and done at the same time as the top. You might have to mess around with what your stone temperature needs to be before putting the pizza on. My best one has been stone temperature 700-750. I let all my toppings, cheese, tomato, come to room
temperature before baking.
I use about 220g per dough ball, spread to about 11". I use a wet mozzarella as the dry stuff would not to so well under the high temperature.
You'll end up with something that looks like this:
And produce goodies like this:
Margherita
Prosciutto:
Zucchini, ricotta, pancetta:
