Friday, August 5, 2011

Grilled Pizza

I think my husband put it it best when we were eating Donato's on Saturday.  "Great.  Now you've ruined pizza."  This method of homemade pizza not only beats any frozen pizza (not that hard, admittedly) but also gets you better pizza than calling up anyone that delivers.  



The problem with making pizza at home is usually that your oven only goes up to 500 degrees or so, while a 'real' pizza oven is at least 100-200 degrees hotter.  Your grill doesn't have that limitation.




Adapted from Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough (I use my go-to of no-knead dough)
1-2 c. tomato sauce
Shredded Mozzarella or other pizza-friendly cheese
Olive oil-- for greasing every available surface
Assorted other toppings-- very thinly sliced, and you'll need less than you think

Directions:
Pre-heat your grill; grill any toppings (such as sausage) that need cooking.

Divide your dough into four balls.  Brush olive oil onto four squares of aluminum foil.  Rub olive oil all over your hands and take a dough ball and stretch it into a 8-10" circle; put it onto a square of foil.

With the no-knead dough, I just plop the dough from the bowl straight to the foil and stretch it out on the foil.  It may not look like this:



But that would just mess up your kitchen.

Repeat for the other three.  (I have no pictures of this because it's a sticky process and my camera is not oil or dough-proof.)   Brush the tops of the dough with olive oil.  If everything is oiled enough, they stack quite nicely, although I use the plastic wrap from the dough's second rise between the dough and the next sheet of foil just in case.  Stack the pizza rounds on a cookie sheet for transport.   



Pre-heat your grill to high and let the dough rest while you set out all your toppings near the grill.  Once you start cooking, it goes fast.

Put the dough straight on the grill (peel off the plastic first!)-- you will probably need to work in batches:


Then peel off the foil (use tongs), but don't discard it yet:



Close the lid.  Wait until the dough looks a little dry on top (just a couple of minutes), and then flip:

Quickly (!) top your pizzas, then close the lid.  If you value your arm hair, you can flip each pizza onto the oiled foil, top, and then slide back onto the grill.


Cook until cheese is melted.  Enjoy the greatest pizza ever.

3 comments:

  1. mmmmmmmmmmmmm this is my fav pizza too! i actually take the pizza off the grill, top it, and then put it back on, its much less stressful. don't want to burn my pizzas! also- i made a white one the other night, you were right, it was awesome.

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  2. I always stress out when it's toppings time. Hurry!!

    Heidi on 101 Cookbooks had some good tips about grilled pizza too, like using toppings that don't need to cook long: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/grilled-pizza-recipe.html

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  3. I had a problem with this dough- i did use AP flour, next time I will try bread flour- since i have personally witnessed this dough made with bread flour work. that's my tip. still yum!

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