Wood Fired Lobster Pizza

I cook a lot of seafood in my Primavera WFO. I love charred grilled lobster far better than steamed. Why did it take me so long to try this?

Let me say up front that this won’t be the cheapest pizza you’ll make if you follow me into this rabbit hole, but I will say it will be a pizza you won’t soon forget!

I love grilled lobster. The charring of the lobster “meat” gives it just a that much more flavor and even a slight textural difference that if it were just steamed. It also frankly just looks so much better – like a perfectly done pizza crust with good charring.

I have grilled many a lobster to great success. The trick is to pre-steam the lobster and basically finish it on the grill. You can steam the lobster for just a few minutes, or I’ve also had great success with having my fish guy steam the lobster and then I’ll just finish it on the grill.

Lobster was on my mind. I have never tried cooking it in my wood fired oven. I was pretty sure my 900 plus degree oven could manage to char the lobster “almost” as much as my grill. I was right, of course, but what to do with the rest of the pizza?

Caputo 00 Neapolitan Dough with olive oil. *I usually like a bit of char on my pizzas, but for this I wanted to keep it lighter and softer to go with the salad and lobster.

Here were the factors at play that day. I craved lobster. Easy fix – cook it. It was a beautiful day that was really feeling like one of those long summer days from your childhood when the days just seemed to go on and on. I don’t get those too often as an adult. We have so many things to think about that it feels like the days are being pulled along going by faster and faster. When I’m in a mood to cook that is often a key element in also wanting to slow down and enjoy the time with my family, or friends or just with my lobsters and such.

It was beautiful out. I was going to make some lobster and put it on a pizza, but what’s different about that and putting other seafood on a pizza like shrimp, mussels, clams, salmon etc? I decided to keep it simple for this one and make a lightly dressed salad to lay on the pizza dough after it was cooked – making sure it was nice and cool – kept in the fridge until the last minute and then finishing it all with the warm lobster right out of the oven.

The only brilliant addition to this, was when I grabbed a big bottle of a Bruery Trade Winds Tripel. As fate would have it, this was a really nice pairing and helped slow down the passing of the day just a little more.

The Lobster Salad Pizza:

– 00 Neapolitan Pizza Dough (link to dough recipe)
– 2 – Lobster Tails (3-4 oz tails) for 1 pizza
– Olive Oil
– Greens – I used a “Spring Mix”
– Lemon Vinagrette for the salad *See below
– Citrus Butter Rub for the Lobster *See below

It started here. Of course I was going to use lemon on my lobster, but I found an interesting recipe for an orange Buerre Blanc sauce and decided to do it with lemon and orange.

There are a couple things to make for this, but both can be done very simply. I was in the mood for a citrusy finish to the lobster. I often go with a spicier version and that could be done as well, but for this one, because the weather was so nice, I could have just done salt/pepper and squeeze lemon juice.

I found a recipe for an Orange Buerre Blanc Sauce and sort of winged it. I was thinking of doing a citrus infused butter, but this caught my eye. I adapted it using half lemon and half orange.

The Buerre Blanc was Simmered and reduced and then rubbed all over the lobster flesh and poured into the cast iron pan with the lobster along with 2 lemon halves.

My quick recipe for Citrus Buerre Blanc Sauce:

– 1 Stick of Butter (unsalted)
– Zest of 1/2 orange
– Zest of 1/2 lemon
– Juice of 1/2 orange
– Juice of 1/2 lemon
– 1/4 cup (approx.) of white wine
– Chopped shallots – or red onions
– Salt/Pepper

Add zest and juice of lemon and orange, shallots, and wine to the sauce pan and saute. When the shallots are softened and the sauce is reduced and thickened, add in the softened butter and whisk it all together. Pretty simple. Very tasty!

My wife, Shanna whipped up the Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing:

– Olive Oil
– Juice of 1/2 Lemon
– A little salt and pepper

Add some olive oil to a bowl (about 3 tablespoons). Add 1/2 lemon’s juice (about  1 1/2 tablespoons) – whisk. Salt/Pepper – make adjustments to taste.  Simple and delicious!  *We make this all the time. It’s about 2/3 oil – 1/3 lemon juice. Taste and adjust for your preference. Lightly dress the salad – just before serving, or putting on the pizza.

Tails with flesh pulled out of the shell with Buerre Blanc Orange/Lemon Sauce…time for the WFO!

The Lobster Tails:

Prepare the lobster tails by cutting the top of the shell and pulling the meat out and resting it on top of the shell. There are many YouTube videos showing how to do this. Brush the lobster meat with the Citrus Butter on top and underneath. I drizzled the rest of the butter over it and squeezed some more lemon on it and put the lemons in the cast iron pan with everything.

Ok, let’s make the pizza, I’m getting hungry just writing this up again!

Spread the dough and rub a thin layer of olive oil on top.

Into the oven. Because this is a lighter dish with lobster and salad I chose not to try to cook this dough too long. I wanted some char, but a lighter dough that is 85% done — seemed like a good call on this one. About a minute and nothing, and the dough came out of the oven.

The lobster tails go into the oven — I put them close to the fire. This didn’t take long – maybe a few minutes. I pulled them out to test the firmness with my finger. When it felt right, I slid my pizza peel under the cast iron and “domed” my lobster just as I would with a pizza! I let it rip up there for longer than I would a pizza, because it was moist and could take it — just trying to give it that smokey charred finish with the super intense heat.

Look at that!

Shaky hands?  You try holding a camera in one hand and doming a heavy cast iron pan with lobster for a final char and then easing it down and out of the oven while keeping it in frame!  If we could just add the smoke and scent of the roasting lobster, butter and citrus to come out of your computer — maybe in a another 10 years?!!

*If you don’t have a Wood Fired Oven, you can grill the lobster or broil it and, of course, make this all in your home oven.  There are many videos and recipes online.

For a dinner party, how about serving small personal pizzas with salad on top and giving everyone a lobster tail to cut up and put on their own pizza?  My pizza here got 2 tails!

Warm crust, cool salad, warm citrus infused buttery charred lobster served with charred lemons and a cold glass of Bruery Trade Winds Tripel!!! I said it wouldn’t be cheap! That’s a Two-Tale Lobster Pizza!

The salad is put on the warm pizza crust right out of the fridge. This was one of the keys to my original idea…warm crust – coold (so cool it’s almost cold) – warm charred lobster. It doesn’t look like a lot of lobster in that salad, but there’s plenty in there — I chopped it up and a lot of it fell in under the salad.

The crust is warm and perfectly cooked for this pizza. The salad is cool (coold) and fresh with a clean crisp zing from the vinaigrette. The lobster is warm, charred and just has a delicious sweet buttery coating that isn’t too sweet because of the citrus zest and juices.

More hot lemon juice over the top and this was just simply wonderful! After a bite or two and some OMG’s and traditional WOWS, I took a sip of a Trade Winds Triple. My Angels didn’t cry, but they did weep!

Enjoy!