The other day I was hanging out on the front porch sipping chilled wine and contemplating how the month of August could possibly cause so much chaos, stress and anxiety in my life.
You know – like trying to sell a house and inviting a new person into your life. A bit stressful. It’s all good stuff. Still, I’m damn near spent mentally.
Just the thought of it all was causing me considerable panic at that moment, which led me to craving something packed with an obscene amount of carbs in it.
You know – like Pizza.
But not just mundane, everyday pizza. I had to get creative this time. It needed an extra depth of flavor.
I had dough ready to go. I almost always do, for fast pizza or a loaf of bread.
Making up a batch of sauce is easy – canned tomatoes, garlic, half an onion, oregano, salt and olive oil. Easy. There are a ton of recipes out there.
I decided it was time to fire up the smoker and see what it could do for a homemade pizza. Plus my oven is broken, so I really had no choice.
I used a very, very small amount of hickory (that was all I had) so as not to over-power the pizza flavor. And I didn’t let it smoke for long.
With no direction to go on, I cooked the pizza between 425º-450º degrees F. because I was afraid if I went any hotter I’d burn the bottom of the crust and the toppings wouldn’t be cooked right.
It only took about 15 minutes.
The crust came out nice with a little char on the edges, which I love. And the toppings ended up cooked about right too.
The pizza had that nice, wood-stove-cooked pizza flavor, which is exactly what I was looking for.
So, would I do it again? Most definitely. And I think I will try some off-beat, less-traditional pizza toppings next time to make things even more interesting. ~A
Go out in the woods and find yourself some wild mushrooms to throw on top.