Awhile back, I decided to try to make pizza at home. Not just any pizza- coal oven pizza. Sadly, previous attempts ended in failure. Terrible failure. Happily, the new smoker opened up new possibles.
I picked up a nice square of terra cotta for 25 cents at the Home Depot. Yup, 25 cents! Screw you, expensive pizza stones. Made a crazy hot charcoal fire. Threw in a chunk of hardwood just for kicks. Grew excited. Very excited.
Excitement. That was the big problem. Lack of patience. I'm pretty sure the stone needed at least another twenty minutes to get to ideal heat. One of the things that makes coal oven pizza is the charred crust. The biggest thing lacking in my pizza was...charred crust.
Although the pizza lacked charred crust, it was otherwise pretty good. I had a nice sauce/cheese balance, and the addition of a little garlic and basil was fantastic. Overall, I was much happier with the result- especially compared to previous attempts. But pretty happy is not the goal.
Next time, more time. And, hopefully, success. Good thing I'm off to New York next week. For research, of course.
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