Morrocan Lamb Sausage pizza, including making the dough

Stormbringer · March 2016

This is how I make a Moroccan Lamb Sausage pizza from scratch using a large BGE. Apologies if this is information overload, I saw a few threads asking about this sort of thing.

The dough - minimal knead technique ... lazy is sometimes good

250g "00" flour
25g semolina
175ml warm water (125ml cold, 50ml boiling)
1tsp easybake yeast (or one sachet)
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
2tsp olive oil
Plain flour for dusting

Mix all of the dry ingredients into a bowl. Pour in the water, mix the ingredients into a dough ball. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough mixture onto a surface with 1 tsp olive oil. Knead the dough for around 20 secs, working the oil into the dough. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough mixture onto a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 20 secs. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for 30 minutes, then repeat this process and leave for another 30 minutes. By this time the dough should feel smooth and slightly resistant to having a finger poked in it.

Take the dough out of the bowl and remove any excess dough or other materials stuck to the side. Or use a clean bowl. Put 1 tsp olive oil in the bowl, then add the dough back in. Move the dough around the bowl so it is lightly coated with oil. Cover and put in the fridge. It is best left in the fridge overnight for use the following day, however it can also be made in the morning on the same day for evening use.

You can multiply up the ingredients and split into dough balls for freezing for later use. I normally make two at a time, one for cooking and another to keep for emergency pizza cravings.

The toppings

1 packet pizza mozzarella (or large mozzarella ball, drained)
1 packet grated mozzarella
100g dry goats cheese
250g spinach
1 garlic clove (optional)
3 Moroccan Lamb Sausages - or - 3 Lamb Sausages and 1 tbsp Moroccan Spices
Polenta/cornmeal
Plain flour
Basil leaves

At least an hour before you want make the pizza, take the dough out of the fridge to warm it up to room temperature. Remove the sausage meat from the sausage skins, squash flat and fry so it is partially cooked. Leave to cool nowhere that your pet cats can get at the meat. Using the same frying pan with the sausage juices, add a little water and fry the spinach leaves until they are reduced, adding in the chopped garlic clove if desired. Remove and dry the leaves using kitchen towel or salad spinner.

Setting up the Egg
Egg setup is platesetter with feet up (indirect cooking), stock grid, pizza stone.

The aim is to get the egg to 400C and have it there for some time to heat up the pizza stone. Clean out the egg completely beforehand for full airflow. Use fresh lump, with larger pieces at the base to allow airflow. Fill the egg so that the charcoal is halfway up level of the fire ring, it will burn down a lot. Rather than use a single firelighter in the middle, put two firelighters offset from the centre and light them both. This is to get maximum heat.

When the coals are lit, add the platesetter with feet up and the metal grid, then the pizza stone on top of the grid. If you have them, you can add two stacks of two firebricks* between the grid and the pizza stone ... raising a pizza stone into the dome of the egg really helps it cook. Close the lid, leave the heat regulator off the top and the bottom grate fully open. Check on this regularly, the egg will heat up really quickly. Once the egg is at 400C, leave the top uncovered and control the temperature using the bottom grate. The egg remains like this for 15 minutes to get the pizza stone up to temperature. The temperature of the egg may drop a little below 400C during this time, even with the grate fully open, that's fine.
*Important: house bricks must not be used for this.

I don't own one (yet) but I think that the above height and indirect cooking can also be achieved with a PSWoo2 or adjustable rig setup.

Prepping the Pizza
Whilst the pizza stone is warming up, remove the dough from the bowl and roll it out or toss it to shape it, depending on whether you want thin or thick crust. The dough will make a 14 inch pizza, which is the same diameter as the egg's pizza stone, but you can also go for 12 inches.

I prefer thin crust so roll it out on a surface that has flour and polenta, as the latter helps to avoid sticking to the surface. Cut up the pizza mozzarella and dot it around the pizza, then add the cut up cooked sausage meat, spinach and goats cheese. Finally sprinkle some grated mozzarella on top. This is pictured below on a Superpeel ready to deploy to the BGE:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/qt/9rtg764rbqoc.png

Cooking the Pizza
By now the egg should have been at 400C for some time. Carefully open the egg, burping it first, and sprinkle a small amount of polenta on the pizza stone. Then quickly transfer the pizza to the stone and close the lid. Leave it for 5 minutes, then open the lid and see how it is doing. If the edge is crisy and the cheese looks cooked, it's done. Otherwise leave for another 2-3 minutes, checking every minute. You can see the fire bricks beneath the stone.

Remove the pizza from the egg, shut the egg down. Add cut basil leaves to the pizza and serve the pizza with a hearty Chianti Classico.

caliking · March 2016

That looks very excellent

And thanks for the detailed recipe and method. For some reason, it was very soothing to read after a busy morning.

NonaScott · March 2016

What is between the pizza and the peel and how do you get the pizza off of that?

SmokeyPitt · March 2016

That pizza is a work of art. Beautifully done!

Stormbringer · March 2016

NonaScott said:

What is between the pizza and the peel and how do you get the pizza off of that?

@NonaScott - the peel is a Superpeel, it's fantastic for getting the pizza onto the pizza stone. The cloth between the pizza and the peel is part of the item. It's one of the best kitchen gadgets I have purchased.

These are some screenshots of getting a pizza onto the peel and then off onto a pizza stone. To get the pizza onto the peel you hold the plastic bar in a stationary position and push/slide the peel under the pizza, the cloth acts as a conveyer belt to load the pizza onto the peel. Using cornmeal on the surface helps, not required on the peel cloth:

Make sure to leave a very small lip of the pizza edge overhanging. Then reverse the action when loading onto the pizza stone, hold the plastic bar in position and retract the peel. Having a very small lip to make initial contact helps in a smooth delivery:

I use a metal paddle to get the pizza off, by this stage there is no chance of sticking to the stone with the cornmeal used, so a swift thrust from a metal peel is fine:

:

Sliced and ready to rock: