We've been thinking about grilled pizza ever since Sara Kate wrote about it in one of our weekly emails from The Kitchn. (Do you get these? No? Sign up here!)
It seems like reader Sarah was inspired as well, and she wrote us with more tips and ideas for grilling pizza. Read on for Sarah's lovely photos and helpful tips on making your very own pizza during Grilling Month.
Here's Sarah!
Since it's grilling month, I thought I would share with you all my grilled pizza process. I think it's a great, easy way to entertain in the summer.
I use the dough from 101cookbooks.com and let it ferment in the fridge a few days for extra flavor.
The first step is assembling the toppings and brushing one side of the dough with olive oil -- it helps to brush the grill too, but I don't find that it's necessary. My coals are medium hot, just enough for nice grill marks but not enough to scorch the dough.
You want two zones, one hot for the first grilling, the other cool to finish the pizza with the toppings. The toppings in the photo are goat cheese, caramelized red onions, sauteed zucchini (which you can't see), basil and a wee bit of Parmesan.
So you gently and carefully slide the dough onto the grill; I don't slide it off a peel, I just carefully pick up the edges. These are personal pizzas, so it's not like you're picking up a 17-inch piece of dough! I would recommend not rolling it out as thinly as I've done here. It's super delicate and I wish I had done it just a bit thicker. For a really thin dough, I would say it takes about 3-5 minutes to get some nice grill marks.
Using tongs, grab the dough off the grill and flip it onto a cornmeal-lined cutting board so the grill marks are facing up. Top as desired--it's really important not to load this pizza up. I guarantee you will have a soggy mess and half of your toppings will end up in the coals!
Slide it back onto the cooler side of the grill, cover the lid, and cook just until the toppings are heated through and the dough is cooked. Oh yeah, cook any vegetables before using them; the heat from the grill will not be sufficient and you'll end up eating them raw!
Plate your pizza! I think it's easiest to have the plate right up next to the pizza and pull it onto the plate with tongs. I ate solo tonight, so you only see a setting for one here. The other night, though, we had friends over and everyone loved the idea of grilled pizza, they were thrilled to be able to choose their own toppings and no one minded at all waiting for all the pizzas to be done. I highly recommend this for a small dinner party!
Thank you Sarah!
Related: Spring Pizza: Inspiration from Epicurious
(All images by reader Sarah)
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yum
view ronzo's profile
Yum - GREAT post, thank you! I will definitely try this.
view ilovebutter's profile
We used a pre-heated pizza stone on the grill and got an excellent result -- without having to flip the dough before adding toppings (we're sorta lazy).
The Golden Spouse said it was the best pizza I've made so far. Jack the Beaglador liked it, too (he stole one of them when we weren't looking).
view Kelly H's profile
Great post!
I recommend grilling pizza as well. You can buy bags of dough at Trader Joe's and my Whole Foods even sells their dough for a couple bucks.
Here's a photo set of some pizzas my wife and I grilled a few weeks ago. We used a hybrid method for our pizzas. Meaning, we broiled them for a minute or two in the oven just to caremelize the top of the pizza a little bit. But you don't have to do that if you don't want to.
I made a little discovery with one of my pizzas--this is the only situation where al dente potatoes are acceptable! The slight snap on the pizza is very nice.
Also, take a look at the "grill-roasted" rapini that I made to accompany the pizzas.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/sets/72157605765724619/
view art's profile
We do grilled pizza on a little charcoal grill that's tough to make more than one temperature, so we slide a pizza stone onto the grill after the first dough-cooking step, and that provides a little insulation from the heat in order to keep the grill lidded to warm up the toppings.
Also, I love that grilled pizza works to make meat-eaters jealous of vegetarians at a cookout, for once.
view Katie in Berkeley's profile
Thank you, Faith!
view sjbreeze's profile