We just got back from traveling in the South of France, and as you’d expect, the food was fantastic. One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was visiting the fantastic food markets. Each town has its own market day, and some have a market every day but Sunday. The Saturday market in the town of Arles is one of the best is the area. And there’s a permanent market in Antibes that’s open every day but Sunday.

The restaurants here serve lots of fresh seafood and other ingredients that you find in the market — vegetables, herbs, and olives. Because the South of France is so close to Italy, there’s also lots of pasta, dishes with tomatoes, and pizza.

There’s a pizza restaurant in just about every small town, and many of them having wood-burning ovens. They don’t make traditional Neapolitan pizza here — the crust is thicker and there are more pizza toppings. But they do create a delicious pie.

We were a little surprised by the pizza toppings, which don’t vary a lot. Nowhere did we see pepperoni, Italian sausage, or the usual pizza meats. Here, as in Spain, it’s all about the ham. Jambon cru, which is like prosciutto, is the most popular choice. Some places, you’ll see specific types of ham, such as Serrano or Iberico ham from Spain.

Seafood, especially ancovies, are also popular toppings. But you’ll also see tuna and calamari.

Most places offer both white and red pizzas. White is sauced with crème fraiche, which is absolutely delicious. The white pizzas are best with vegetables like caramelized onion and mushroom.

The French are known for their fabulous cheeses, and here’s where they make their mark. Unlike in American and Italy, mozzarella isn’t the star of the show when it comes to pizza cheeses. Emmental, which is similar to Swiss cheese, and is made in Switzerland, is very popular. Chevre, or goat cheese, is also used a lot, and it’s frequently combined with arugula.

Gruyere, Fontina, Reblochon, Comte, and Roquefort all makes delicious pizzas.

Many of the pizzas we had has a black olive in the center, and virtually all of them had a drizzle of excellent local olive oil. This really brought all the flavors together and improved the overall taste. A carafe of olive oil with chili peppers is served with your pizza. It’s pretty spicy and adds a nice zing.

We found an artisanal olive oil at our local farmers market and we’ve started drizzling it over our pizzas. It wasn’t inexpensive, but it was well worth the money.

The best pizza we had in the South of France was at La Cantina in Saint-Remy-en-Provence. The town itself is quite charming, one of the cutest in the region. And the restaurant was surprisingly quite modern. But the pizzas there were some of the best we’ve ever has, anywhere.

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It’s summer and no one wants to heat up the kitchen by having the oven on at 450 degrees. But sometimes you want a pizza, and chances are the pizza you make yourself will be better than a pizza that you can get delivered.

Cooking a pizza on a barbecue grill isn’t hard, but there is some technique involved. And which method works best for you depends on what kind of grill you have.

As a rule, you’ll be able to use all your favorite pizza toppings. But since it’s summer, lighter toppings such as shrimp or chicken may be more enjoyable.

If you have a gas grill with a lid, it’s a little easier, because you have more control over the temperature and the flames. But charcoal adds more flavor. You can add some wood chips soaked in wine to the coals for extra smokiness.

Before you get started, brush the grill with some oil so your pizza dough won’t stick. Once you roll out your pizza dough, you’ll want to put it on the grill before you put on the pizza toppings, so you need to plan how to transfer it.

You can put some corn meal on a pizza paddle or peel and use that to transfer the dough onto the grill. Another alternative which works really well is to roll out your pizza dough on waxed paper or parchment. Brush some olive oil on the dough, season it with some garlic powder, a little freshly grated Parmesan, and herbs, then take it out to the grill, lay it face down on the grill, and peel off the paper.

Cook the dough on one side until it gets golden brown. Depending on how hot the barbecue is, this might only take a couple of minutes. It may get charred in a few places, but that’s okay. Once it’s done, turn it over and add your pizza toppings.

Make sure all the ingredients are well drained so your crust gets nice and crisp.

You’ll need to keep an eye on things so your pizza doesn’t burn. If you’re using toppings that take a while to cook, such as onions or peppers, you may want to pre-cook them. That way, your pizza will be ready when the cheese is melted and all the ingredients are heated through.

If your grill is big enough, you can also place a pizza stone or pizza pan in the grill, preheat it, and then transfer an already topped pizza to the stone and cook it as you would in a conventional oven. This will produce a pizza that‘s similar to what you‘d get using an oven. So the main advantage to this method is that you won’t heat up the kitchen.

Brian Boitano buys bricks at the home stores, heats those up in his grill and then cooks his pizza on top of the heated bricks. This technique produces a pizza that’s very similar to the brick-oven pizzas that are popular in New York and Chicago.

Pizza on the grill Image Flickr: gesika22
Just topped pizzas Image Flickr: Michael_Lehet

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Although you can make pizza with almost any kind of cheese, mozzarella cheese is the hands-down favorite. Stringy, chewy, and slightly salty, it holds its own without overpowering the other pizza toppings. In fact, what many argue is the world’s best pizza — Pizza Margherita — has only tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella as its ingredients. And the flavor is incredible.

There are actually several kinds of mozzarella cheese available. So if you’ve been using the packaged, pre-shredded kind that comes in a plastic bag, branch out and try something different. Fresh, high-moisture cheese produces a pizza that‘s quite different from one made with the low-moisture kind.

Two kinds of mozzarella are used in Naples, which is the pizza center of the universe. Fior di latte is made from cow’s milk — it can be either pasteurized or unpasteurized. And mozzarella di bufala is made from the milk of the water buffalo.

During the 16h century, water buffalos were brought back to Italy from India. The milk is hard to digest, but it makes cheese that’s sweet and creamy. Unlike mozzarella from cow’s milk, it is pure white. Because there are so few herds, it’s more expensive than fior di latte, but you don’t need much to make a great pizza.

Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, which is made in the area around Naples, is a European Union Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product. Most authentic, Neapolitan pizzas are made with this.

Unlike most cheese, mozzarella isn’t aged and it’s best when it’s very fresh.

To make mozzarella, the cheese curds are heated in water until they form into strings. Then they’re stretched, kneaded, and shaped into balls. This fresh cheese is stored in brine and is quite moist, so you’ll need to drain it and press out the liquid before using it to top your pizza. Otherwise, your crust will be limp.

Don’t grate it. Use a sharp knife and cut it into thin slices, then lay them on top of the pizza about three or four inches apart. They will spread a little during cooking. But this kind of mozzarella should cover the pizza. And consider foregoing other pizza toppings so you can really savor the flavor of the cheese.

Burrata cheese has been eaten in Italy for decades, but it has only recently become popular in the United States. It has an outer shell of mozzarella, and an inner core of fresh cream. When you cut into it, the center oozes out, blends with the mozzarella, and creates a sinfully delicious concoction. The sweetness of burrata is great when combined with salty meats like prosciutto.

As the burrata bakes, it will spread over the surface of the pizza. It’s very rich — and expensive — so use it sparingly.

Smoked mozzarella, also called affumicata, can add a whole other dimension of flavor. And hard, grating cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano also are an excellent complement to fresh mozzarella.

Next time you’re at your grocery store, look in the cheese section for fresh, high moisture mozzarella cheese and give it a try.

Read how to make your own mozzarella cheese here.

Fresh mozzarella cheese Image Flickr: SanFranAnnie
Pizza with burrata cheese Image Flickr: arnold | inuyaki

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