Cuban Sandwich inspired pizza. (Pron)

I know this is but one in a long line of pizzas cooked on the grill threads but, if they weren't so darn good, we wouldn't keep doing them and wanting to share them with everyone.

Monday was the first day of Headstart (Preschool) for my youngest and my oldest was starting Big School (Kindergarten) on Wednesday. I figured we might as well make it into as much fun as possible so, I decided to make pizza's for dinner and have them help out. They were just wanting straight up sausage and cheese pizzas but, my youngest did put in a request for some pulled pork on her side.
They had fun helping to mix up the dough, neading it, rolling it out, and then topping it. They even helped get the grill fired up, with my youngest carrying the fat wrapped paper towel and oldest carrying the lighter out to be used on the chimney.

While I was digging through the fridge for ingredients, I came across, a red bell pepper, some lunch meat, some pickles, and that gave me an idea to create a pizza with ingredients you would maybe find on a Cuban Sandwich.

By the time my wife got home from work, the kids were already stuffed to the gills and happy little campers. I told her to grab the camera because, I had a pizza to make!
The video

It started with laying out some pizza dough that I made up using half regular flour and whole wheat flour. (This was more for wanting to experiment with the dough then the cuban sandwich aspect.) Then I dropped on 4 Tbs or Pizza Sauce and 4 Tbs of BBQ Sauce and spread it all out.

Then it was time for the base coat of shredded cheese. I used a Fancy Cheese "pizza blend" from Burnett dairy.

Then it was time for the toppings. Sliced red bell pepper, sweet onion, pickles, pieces of ham, some un-sauced pulled pork, and a touch of minced garlic here and there.

After dusting the top with a bit more cheese, out onto the OTG it went. You can't see it in the picture but, there is another pan under the pizza one with 3 tinfoil balls holding the pizza pan about an inch above the other pan.

About 20 minutes later, it came off the grill and got cut up into squares after cooling for a couple of minutes.

The flavor explosion this pizza packed was amazing! You had the sweetness of the bell pepper and onions with the sour of the pickle topped off with salty ham and garlic undertones with a nice smoke back from the BBQ Pork. I totally recommend this to anyone!
Thanks for looking!

deguerre said:

Nice Tom! I see you cooked directly over the coals? So the two layer pan and foil balls were used to both insulate the crust but also allow a kind of convection effect? What temp was the grill set for?

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It is directly over the coals for the most part but, the coals are piled up in the middle so the majority goes under but some do not. Yes, I use the first pan as a heat diffuser so as not to create any strange hot spots, the foil balls work to both to lift the pan up from the direct heat but also, as you said to creat the convection oven effect with air moving all around the pan. I like the use of the foil balls because they wouldn't conduct heat as hevily as if I used say pieces of pipe or something like that. I then align the vent to be on the opposite side of the grill from the opening, creating more of the reverse flow convection environment. The temp is at about 450-500 at the top of the dome. I don't have a great grill thermo so, I slide a fryer one through the vent and let it rest there, it is far from the best but, it's better than nothing for gauging the temps.
I also rotate the pizza half way through cooking.

jaymo said:

Is there a big difference between diffusing this way and using a pizza stone? (Have yet to try grilling any pizza. . .)

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Have never used a pizza stone mainly because I'm too cheap to buy one and I've had several friends who have had them break on them. The one thing I like best about this versus what I know of the pizza stones though is that, I can remove the pan with the pizza on it from the grill where as, with the stones, you really don't want to move them if you don't have to. I do recommend trying it out with a "take and bake" type pizza first though, unless you have cooked alot from scratch pizzas.

bluetang said:

Great looking pizza:thumb: What I loved the most(besides the dance, of course) was that immediate grin after your first bite.:clap2::clap2::clap2:

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That's my, "I love it when a plan comes together." look. :laugh: