Since our no delivery of restaurant food policy has been in effect, the only pizza we've had has been a couple of Chicago-style frozen pizzas. Rather than breaking policy, I opted to buy something I've wanted for a longtime; namely, the KettlePizza oven. It's primary purpose is making pizza, of course, but when coupled with a smoker tube it should make a decent substitute for a wood-fired oven.
We made our first pizzas last night. Mushroom and onion for Helen and pepperoni for me. They turned out pretty well for a first try. I gave them a B- for results and a B+ for effort. Helen gave them B+ for both.
We learned several things. First, you definitely need to put something on the peel to make it easier to shake the pizza off the peel and onto the stone. Second, don't use cornmeal. Some of it gets on the stone or falls through the grill onto the heating elements. In either case, it burns and generates some nasty smoke. Use Wondra flour instead. Third, use mozzarella slices instead of pearls. The round pearls don't stay put when you're shaking the pizza off the peel.
We agreed that we'd need many more trials before we'd do it for company. But as a proof of concept, I thought it was a success.
BTW, we drank a 2017 Pio Cesare Barbera d'Alba. Big for a Barbera, but that seems to be the trend these days. Blackberry. Plum. Medium bodied. Plenty of acid. Good structure. Nice match. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have double decanted the wine so as to promote aeration. Grade: B+
