Deconstructed Trail Pizza for a Crowd

A couple weeks ago I took some friends down the Choro Trail in the rainy season. To combat the discouragement of wet weather we decided to pull out some awesome meals using the Jetboil Helios that I picked up from the Sierra Trading Post.

Yes, I had made a simple trail pizza for one person, but cooking for a crowd is more demanding, and requires a bit more creativity, and a bigger pot.

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Paul’s Deconstructed Trail Pizza for 4 hungry backpackers – Makes 6 to 7 – 7.5” pizzas with a 2.1 Liter Jetboil Helios pot

Here’s the Ingredients you’ll need:

• Pre-mixed quick dough
  • Dry Ingredients
    • 2 cup flour
    • 3 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp salt
  • Wet Ingredients
    • 2 cups water
    • 3 tbsps oil – for bread
• Toppings
  • 4 x spanish sausage (or equivalent in pre-packaged pepperoni)
  • 1 lb mozzarella or other prefered cheese
• Tomato Sauce
  • 2 x 6 oz package of tomato paste/sauce
  • 1 tsp Garlic
  • 1 tsp Oregano
  • 1 tsp Basil
  • 1 tsp Thyme
• For the Pan
  • 3/4 cup corn meal
  • 7 tbsps oil

Prep:

1. Mix tomato sauce ingredients together in a bowl and let sit
2. Mix pizza dough dry and wet ingredients together and let sit.
3. Slice Spanish Sausage into 3/16” to 1/4” thick rounds.
4. Slice cheese into 1/16” slices.

Cooking:

The biggest challenge of cooking this recipe is keeping the bottom from burning. To overcome this I changed other recipes and processes, including corn meal and putting the sausage on the bottom.

1. Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan, rotating the pan until the bottom (and sides up to 1 inch high) are coated.
2. Sprinkle with corn meal until there is a thin layer of corn meal on it.
3. Line the bottom of the pan with sausage slices until you have 1 complete layer.
4. Pour over enough dough to juts cover the sausages.
5. Put the pot on the stove with lid on top.
6. Let cook for 3-5 minutes or until the dough has cooked.
7. Remove from heat and apply tomato sauce mix to the top of the pizza.
8. Cover with sliced cheese.
9. Return to the heat with lid on top and let cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Serving:

The real challenge with this pizza is removing it from the pot. The corn meal helps. My best success is the sumo drop. With the lid on the pot and your hand on the top lift the whole pot, flip it and stop on the way down. Just like getting the ketchup out of the ketchup bottle, this same action will pop the pizza out of the pot and into the lid. Then, you can just remove the lid and eat off it like a plate.

 

Check out the video below for an example of how to do it and to see how much everyone enjoyed it!