bits

Oven Grate Pizza

3 min read

yield: 3 pizzas · prep time: 45 min · cook time: ~6 min broiling per pizza
total time: 90 min (same-day, 30 min dough rest) or 1-7 days with cold ferment

Ingredients

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Shopping List

Dough

  • 🍺 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 🍞 450 g 000 flour
  • 🫒 50 g olive oil
  • 🧂 10 g salt
  • 💧 240 ml warm water
Link to original
Sauce

  • 🍅 350 g can ground tomatoes
  • (optional) dried oregano
  • (optional) dried basil

Cheese

  • 🧀 450 g low-moisture mozzarella
  • 🧀 small handful of finely grated parmesan

Prepping

  • semolina / cornmeal / regular flour
  • olive oil to make dough not stick

Depending on your mood you can also use:

  • Sheet pan instead of the grate: works under the broiler, but it cooks slower and comes out toppings-on-a-cracker
  • No rolling pin: you can also just stretch the dough by hand - though that’s going to make more air pockets around the crust

Preparation

Step 0 - Prepare the pizza dough

  1. Follow the recipe for all-purpose pizza dough. If you’re in a hurry you can stretch the dough by hand after leaving it to rest for 30 min

Step 1 - Heat the broiler and the grate

  1. Set a clean oven grate on the second-highest rack position
  2. Turn the broiler all the way up - that’s the filament at the top of the oven
  3. Give the grate a few minutes to heat, then press a wet towel on it - if it sizzles it’s ready

Step 2 - Roll the dough

  1. Flour both sides of one ball straight from the fridge, unwarmed
  2. Roll and turn with a rolling pin until even thickness throughout - evenness is what keeps it from burning in patches
  3. Stop just shy of target thinness, oblong not round - it stretches more on the way in

Step 3 - Drape and broil the bottom

  1. Coat the top face of the dough in a thin film of olive oil - cold dough is stiff and easy to handle
  2. Pull the grate out as far as it goes and drape the dough oil-side down
  3. Pick up drooping edges and hang them over the nearest wire
  4. Slide in, close the door, broil about 3 min until a few small burn spots show

Step 4 - Dress and broil again

  1. Pull the rack out and flip the dough with the creases up
  2. Spoon a thin layer of sauce, less than feels right
  3. Scatter the parmesan, then the mozzarella edge-first, working inward
  4. Slide back in, door closed, broil 2–3 min
  5. Pull when the cheese is as brown as you like, straight onto a cooling rack

Step 5 - Rest, cut, repeat

  1. Rest a few minutes to steam off, cut with a chef’s knife
  2. The grate holds its heat - dress the next pizza immediately

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