Pellet smoker: Let it smoke!

When fine wood fire aromas spread in the Lucky Rooster , Markus Mack is in his element and the world is in perfect order for him - at least if he can ignore Corona and its consequences for a while. The 43-year-old has turned a venerable but rather dusty traditional Swabian inn in Sielmingen, a district of Filderstadt, into an American barbecue and grill restaurant and thus realized his dream. It is the first location to be run as a Traeger restaurant, and so it is of course clear what, or rather what, Markus likes to put his recipe ideas into practice: We are talking about Traeger pellet grills. Which does not mean that the Lucky Rooster only has low&slow on the menu. Things can also be hot and crispy, as Markus' recipes for FIRE&FOOD confirm.

Markus Mack has specialized in grilling and smoking with the Traeger pellet smoker for five years and feels at home in the culinary world of the American South. It is good, honest cuisine, cooked with passion and love - and Markus wants to implement this style at Lucky Rooster. So it is somehow fitting that he takes his cues from two women in the US BBQ scene: Tootsie Tomanetz, the grande dame of Texas barbecue, who, in her mid-80s, still regularly sets the tone as pitmaster at Snow's BBQ in Lexington. And Danielle Bennett aka Diva-Q, who has also stoked the fire for FIRE&FOOD.

Look forward to a culinary firework of flavors when you try Markus' recipes. We have his recipe for "Pizza a la nord italia" exclusively for you here. You can find all of Markus' other recipes in the current issue of FIRE&FOOD 04/2020, the single issue is available digitally and in print HERE in our shop.

Ingredients (for 4 pizzas):
• 14 g dry yeast
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 640 ml lukewarm water
• 800 g wheat flour type 550
• 200 g durum wheat semolina
• Tomato sauce
• approx. 16 slices of South Tyrolean bacon
• 200 g mountain cheese, grated
• 100 g mozzarella, sliced
• Possibly 8 tablespoons cream (optional)
• 1 handful of rocket

Preparation :
For the dough, mix the yeast with the brown sugar and the warm water. Leave to rest for 2 minutes. In the meantime, mix the flour with the semolina and salt. Add to the yeast mixture and knead for 5-6 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Equip the grill with a pizza stone and preheat to 220 °C. Divide the pizza dough into four equal pieces and roll each out on baking paper to a diameter of 30-35 cm. Then top the pizza. To do this, spread the tomato sauce evenly over the bases, sprinkle with the grated mountain cheese and top with the mozzarella. If you want even more flavor, spread 2 tablespoons of cream on each of the pizzas. Bake the pizzas on the pizza stone with the baking paper for 10-15 minutes. Then top the baked pizzas with the South Tyrolean bacon, sprinkle with rocket and leave to rest for 4 minutes. Serve hot.