I really like my Ooni Koda pizza oven, but as I said in the last post I wasn't quite getting the perfect pizza I wanted. Particularly:

1. The top and bottom of the pizza weren't getting done at quite the same rate;
2. The 300F temperature drop between the back and front of the oven meant that I either burned the back edge, or needed to spin the pizza the whole time it was cooking;
3. I had to do a lot of cranking the oven up and down to preheat it, then to lower the heat for actual cooking.

So, time for some pizza oven hacking. I was going to try a few things. But first, I had to replace the faulty gas regulator that came with the Koda, which required an Amazon order because, for some bizarre reason, no hardware store in Portland carries a gas regulator with more than 14" of hose (Ooni paid me back for the purchase).

My first thought was about the pizza stone. The corderite stone the Koda comes with is only 3/8" thick, and I was wondering if a thicker stone might both retain heat better, as well as conduct heat to the front of the oven. So I headed down to my local pottery store (Georgie's) and had them cut me a 12" x 12" x 3/4" kiln shelf.

Here it is in the oven. I realized after I inserted it that I should have gotten 13" x 13", but tried it anyway. You can see that doubling the stone thickness makes a big difference in how it looks in the oven.

My second hack had to do with spinning the pizza. I bought some of these:

These are "pizza spinners", which sounded like exactly what I needed to keep that pizza spinning if I can't even out the temperature. The idea was that you can grab the pizza with the two little claws, and spin it without taking it partway out of the oven, as you need to do with a spinning paddle.

So, how did it work? Pretty well.

The thicker stone did make a big difference in temperature retention. I didn't need to crank the heat up and down; I could leave it on a medium heat, get the stone nice and hot, and pop one pizza in after another.

Even better, raising the pizza 3/8" resulted in even top-and-bottom cooking. The position of the pizza on the thinner stone is just a little too low, and raising it one pizza thickness made all the difference.

You can see here that I got excellent blistering on the bottom of the pizza:

And pretty good loft in the crust, especially for a store-bought dough (from Zupan's):

Unfortunately, the thicker stone did nothing to even out the back-to-front temperature difference; corderite just isn't a good conductor. You can see that I still had crust burning issues whenever I didn't spin the pizza fast enough:

My next attempt for that will be using a pizza steel, which ought to have better conductivity and thus help even out the heat. Will it burn the crust, though? We'll find out.

The pizza spinners did make it easier to spin the pizza quickly, in place. Once, that is, I figured out to use them like claws and spin the pizza around by grabbing the sides of the crust, instead of by poking them into the center and spinning. The latter isn't very effective, and can tear the pizza. But, the results speak for themselves; look at the even cooking of the pizza at the top of this post.

Overall, I think I'm a lot closer to the gas-fired pizza of my dreams. Just a little more tweaking and trials to go. I recommend the spinners, for certain, and maybe the thicker stone if you can get one and don't want to try a pizza steel.

Oh, and I also made some strawberry-machego empanadas in the Koda:

I've messed around with various ways of making pizza on the grill for the last couple of years with unsatisfactory results. So when kickstartered pizza maker Ooni announced the Koda, their new super-simple gas-only portable outdoor pizza oven, I preordered one. Here's my first report on its performance.

First, they're not kidding about the Koda being portable. There's no chimney, the oven's legs fold up, and the whole thing weighs less than the gas tank you use to fuel it. I've ordered a carry-case now and expect to bring this to pizza parties at friends' homes.

There's a cost to that portability, though. First, you have to find a table to put it on; I'm going to build one out of scrap for the backyard. Second, the baking surface is a 12" square, and you really want to make your pizzas a no more than 9"-10" in diameter to keep the crust away from the flame and front edge. You also need a suitably narrow pizza peel, preferably a steel one so it doesn't catch fire.

I preheated the Koda for about 1/2 hour. It did not get up to the reported 950F, but it easily got up to 800F -- possibly because I was using it on a porch where it was 48F out. Anyway, 800F is plenty hot enough for some serious pizza.

So I popped in a "winter margarita", with buffalo mozzarella, pesto, and roasted tomatoes left over from last summer. I'd used my standard pizza dough recipe, which turned out to be a mistake (more about that later).

The pizza cooked fast at that heat. Too fast, in fact; it started to burn along the back edge. And by "burn" I mean "bright yellow flames". I quickly pulled it out, and then started to rotate it to get the rest done. The whole pizza was done in about 3 minutes.

Over the next 5 pizzas I made I learned a bit how to deal with the Koda. First, crank the heat between pies, but then turn it down when inserting the pizza. Second, rotate that pizza as soon as you can, and keep spinning it. If you have thick toppings, it can also help to finish them against the top of the oven. The other pizzas I made included:

• Shaved asparagus and Fontina Val d'Aosta
• Zucchini, roasted tomato and olive
• Buffalo mozzarella and rosemary

Of these, the mozzarella/rosemary was the biggest hit. I baked all 6 pizzas in less than an hour, taking a break between the first and second three.

Through this I continued to have a problem with the back edge burning. Part of this was my fault due to the dough recipe; apparently doughs with sugar or honey in them are a Bad Idea at 800F and tend to burn. However, the Koda also has a pretty serious temperature dropoff between the back of the oven and the front, like 250F difference. This really isn't that surprising considering the Koda's design, but it does mean that pizzaiolos need to keep the pizza spinning, as much as possible.

Fortunately, one thing Ooni has is a friendly, super-pizza-geeky community on Facebook who were all-too-happy to speculate and advise on how I could do better next time. I'll also experiment with a thicker pizza stone and other tweaks.

Overall, though, I am very pleased with my purchase. The Koda makes superior pizza, and is certainly the best pizza oven you can get for $300, as well as the most portable and the simplest to operate. I expect many pizza-making nights this summer, and I'll try naan and kachapuri in it too.

It's late August, which means pepper season. For many folks, it's also Oh-God-don't-you-dare-turn-on-the-oven-in-the-house season, which makes it challenging to prepare stuffed peppers at the height of pepper ripeness, when they are best. Believe it or not, it was that temperature in San Francisco this weekend, so I devised a way to do Greek-style stuffed peppers entirely on the grill.

Note that this recipe involves having the grill going for a long time, so make sure you have plenty of fuel. Also think about what else you could grill while you're stuffing the peppers (e.g. corn, tuna, beets, etc.). Also, see the notes at the bottom about the ingredients.

bulgur-stuffed grilled peppers

6 ripe bell peppers
1 1/2 cups fine-ground bulgur wheat (#1)
4-6 summer squash, around 2 lbs
1 medium onion, chopped fine, around 1 cup
3-6 cloves of garlic, chopped, around 1 Tbs
2/3 cup minced mixed herbs
12oz crumbled feta cheese
olive oil
salt
grill, foil, grill tools, fine sieve

While prepping the onions, garlic, and herbs, heat up the grill. Dump the bulgur in a fine sieve, and rinse it in cold water, tossing to wet it all. Leave it suspended in the sink to drain.

Put the summer squash on the grill. Make a foil packet and seal the onions and garlic inside, mixed with a little olive oil; put this on the grill as well. Turn the squash every 3-4 minutes, until mostly cooked and starting to blister and burn. Take everything off the grill, and let cool for 10 minutes. If using a gas grill, turn it down to low.

Cut the stem out of each pepper, making sure to keep the sides and top "shoulder" intact (this is harder than it sounds). Reach inside with your fingers or a melon baller and remove any remaining seeds and pith.

Combine the drained bulgur, herbs, and feta cheese. Add the onions and garlic. Dice the cooked squash small (about 1/4"), and mix that in as well. Add 2 Tbs olive oil, and salt to taste. Stuff the peppers with this mixture, pressing down to pack them full. You may have some stuffing left over; it makes a nice salad if left to sit overnight.

Turn the heat on the grill back up. Place the peppers over indirect heat and close the lid for 10 minutes. Check them, and turn any which are blistering on one side. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, checking them as necessary. They are done when the peppers are blistery/burnt all around and the stuffing is crusty on top.

Serve hot, and give diners sharp knives to make cutting them easier.

Peppers: you want ripe bell peppers for this, such as red, yellow, or purple peppers, not green ones. Select carefully for peppers with four-lobed or five-lobed "square" bottoms so that they will stand upright on the grill. This recipe is for 6 medium-to-large peppers (about 3.5"); if you have very small or very large peppers, adjust the pepper/stuffing ratio.

Herbs: mince together any two or more of the following fresh herbs: flat-leaf parsley, oregano, dill, thyme, or mint. If you're short on fresh herbs, mince 1/2 cup parsley and add 1 tsp each dried mint and dill.

What's the difference between a pizza and a flatbread? Well, one is a meal for $20 and the other is an appetizer for $15. Since these are appetizer-sized, I'm calling them flatbreads.

For those who haven't done grilled pizza before, here's how it works:

1. get the grill nice and hot
2. carefully lay some oiled pizza dough on
3. grill for 1-2 minutes, until the bottom is dry and has grill marks.
4. flip over and top with toppings
5. grill for another 4 minutes

The really important thing for grilled pizza is not to overload it; a soggy pizza will fall apart on the grill. Just put a few scattered toppings on, and nothing wet. This is one such, taking advantage of the second-crop asparagus.

grilled asparagus and halloumi flatbread

1 lbs refrigerated pizza dough
1 bunch asparagus, around 1lbs.
6-7 oz haloumi cheese
2 oz mozarella cheese
1/2 lbs plum or San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
pepper

Heat up the grill. You're looking for medium-hot grill heat here, around 550F.

Grill the asparagus for 3 to 5 minutes (depending on thickness); you're looking for it to be parly cooked here, and lightly seared on one side. Take it off the grill and set aside to cool.

Slice the tomatoes into small, thin slices. Slice or dice the mozarella and the haloumi into small pieces, around 1/4" cube or smaller.

Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each into a ball, then roll it out with a rolling pin until it's around 6" in diameter and very thin. Dock the dough so it doesn't puff up too much, using a docker or a serving fork. Paint both sides with olive oil using a basting brush.

Put the dough on the grill. You'll have to carefully lift it and drop it on with your fingers; the oiled dough is liable to stick to any pizza paddle. Close the lid and cook for two minutes; in that time the dough should be dry and puff up in little bubbles. Remove from the grill onto a platter.

Slice the grilled asparagus on the bias. Use thinner slices for thick asparagus, and cut long pieces for very thin asparagus.

Assemble the flatbreads. Flip the grilled breads over so the side with the grill marks is up. Dot each bread with the mozarrella. Add a few slices of tomato. Scatter 1/4 of the asparagus on each bread, and then top with 1/4 of the haloumi. Sprinkle with ground pepper. Do not overload the breads; you want a scattering of toppings, not a thick layer.

Slide each bread back onto the grill and cook for about 4 minutes. They're done when the edges are brown, the breads are stiff, and the haloumi has started to soften. Cut each into pieces and serve.