5 Recipes For Your Best-Ever Backyard Pizza Party

If you’ve experienced Elena, the “coffee, pizza, wine” joint in Montreal’s St-Henri neighbourhood, chances are you already know it’s a different kind of eatery. “We think restaurants should be fun—a place where people go to celebrate, feel happy and make connections,” says Ryan Gray, co-owner and sommelier at Elena. Besides offering über-delicious naturally leavened wood-fired pizzas made with freshly milled Quebec wheat, deceptively simple pasta prepared daily and a banging natural-wine list, the modern Italian hot spot, led by Gray, Janice Tiefenbach and Marley Sniatowsky, strives to nurture a healthier, more compassionate working environment with subsidized health care, shorter work weeks than most restaurants and even paid overtime.

That’s what makes Salad Pizza Wine, the debut cookbook from the Elena team, so refreshing. The book is a heartwarming—and, at times, goofy—story of community building among a group of friends dreaming of a brighter future for the often troubled food-service industry. “Salad Pizza Wine really represents the last five years. It’s fun and it’s silly, but at the end of the day, it’s fundamentally based on good things, just like the restaurant,” says Gray.

“There wasn’t a stranger involved in the process of [creating] this book,” explains writer Stephanie Mercier Voyer, who was part of Elena’s opening team in 2018. “I feel very lucky that this is my first cookbook, because I got to work on it with all my closest friends.” There are 115 playful recipes to mix and match into menus, from the restaurant’s long-standing classics, such as Kale! Caesar! and the Diavolo 2.0 pizza with pepperoncini, to a gargantuan Timpano pasta dome. “We would get on Zoom during the peak of COVID and tell stories about each recipe,” says Mercier Voyer. “It was essentially hours-long sessions with us laughing and saying the stupidest things, then reminiscing on years of friendship and the restaurant.”

Here, we’ve pulled together the perfect backyard pizza–party menu with recipes excerpted from the recently released cookbook.

Our Favourite Canadian Canned Cocktails for Summer

Aloette’s gin-and-lime Southside Fizz is more proof that the canned category has finally arrived. $3 each, lcbo.com.

Fin Soda’s zero-proof Aperitivo is just as complex as the full-strength version. $55 for 12, finsoda.com.

Light pink and sparkly, the Opus Peach Bellini is fresh, bright and booze-free. $17 for four, drinkopus.com.

Dillon’s new Strawberry Rhubarb Gin pops with sweet flavour but remains dry. $3.25 each, dillons.ca.

Margherita Pizza

We all know that the margherita is the benchmark when it comes to pizza. What you may not know about us is that when we first opened the restaurant, we were so clueless about what we were doing (and clearly overwhelmed) that when our friend Kyle ordered a margherita, we brought him a margarita cocktail instead. It wasn’t even on the menu. It’s embarrassing to admit it, but, thankfully, we’ve gotten a lot better at taking orders and making pizza since that first night. Get this margherita pizza recipe.

Dany Pizza

If you grew up or partied in Montreal any time between 1998 and 2014, there’s a good chance you ended up eating a slice at Pizza Dany on de la Montagne. Being able to make our version of Dany’s famous spinach pizza is our way to still indulge and reminisce about those years now that our partying days are behind us. Get this dany pizza recipe.

Tomato Tonnato

When we decided to write this book, our first thought was, “You know what the world needs right now? Another take on vitello tonnato!” Just kidding— nobody needs another version of this classic Piedmontese dish. But because tomato season is so special and because Ryan’s and Steph’s moms really love this version, in which savory beefsteak tomatoes play the part of thinly sliced veal, we just had to include it. Get this tonnato recipe.

Kale! Caesar! Salad

This is the salad equivalent of getting catfished. All the ingredients come together to trick your brain into thinking you’re eating a delicious Caesar salad, but there’s no mayonnaise and no anchovies anywhere in the recipe. The only thing it has in common with a Caesar are the croutons and the cheese (which we really couldn’t live without). Hail, Caesar! Get this caesar salad recipe.

Concord Grape and Fennel Cake with Amaro Syrup

You can swap the fruits, the fats and the flour in this flexible recipe and still end up with an amazing cake every time. We dressed this one up in the style of a schiacciata con l’uva, a type of Tuscan flatbread made during harvest using wine grapes and fennel seeds. Get this cake recipe. 

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