Cooking to beat the heat

As we enter what I have always thought of as “high summer,” the abundance of beautiful foods to choose from is almost overwhelming. The greens and roots of early summer are still coming to the market…and now we have tomatoes, corn, green beans, summer squashes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, melons, and stone fruits. It is a heady time of year to cook and eat.

All of this bounty makes choosing a topic for a short newsletter a bit of a challenge. So rather than choosing an ingredient…or set of ingredients…this month I’m going to focus on how in recent years I have been bringing one of my favorite foods to the table during that moment of the year when turning on the oven can make the house uncomfortably hot: Pizza on the grill.

Pizza on the Grill

If you only think of pizza as a rich, tomato sauce-slathered, cheese and meat laden round of bread, it might not be something you particularly crave on a hot day. But if you, like me, most often think of pizza as a thin, crisp flatbread…topped with the best produce of the season…a small amount of cheese…and meat as a garnish (if at all), then you probably do crave it this time of year. Many of the vegetables I listed at the start are fantastic on a pizza. Along with a big summer salad or a platter of fruit…and a glass of wine…it makes a delightful meal.

The difficulty in enjoying pizza during the summer months lies in the fact that pizza needs to be baked in a very hot oven. And the oven will be hot for longer than the short amount of time it takes to actually bake the pizza. The oven needs to preheat for at least a half hour (some say an hour) to create the best pizza making conditions. For many of us, this just isn’t an option since it will make our living spaces insufferably hot. But we don’t have to forgo summer pizza. There are alternatives.

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