Pizza on the Grill

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You know what would make this feel less like a Monday? If everyone could throw their own personalized pizza on the grill! You don’t have to wait for the weekend; you just have to plan ahead a little. Making the homemade dough is the most time-consuming part only because of the rising time. Hands-on time is short. It’s even shorter if you buy it at the grocery store. Trader Joe’s has good pizza dough ready to go, and I would imagine most other grocery stores do as well.

I like to use my grill as much as possible in the summertime. Making pizza is no exception. In fact, it’s way better than the oven because it does not heat up the house, and it adds a nice smoky flavor. It also doesn’t set off the smoke alarm. Inevitably, when I crank up the inside oven to 500 degrees F, something on the bottom causes it to smoke, triggering the alarm, and causing major drama, especially from the dog but really from all of us since we’ve got a little PTSD from smoke alarms. Someday, I will have a real outdoor pizza oven, but my pizza stone and Weber grill do the job quite nicely until then.

Toppings, of course, are up to you. I made a pumpkin seed pesto (which I will try to get up on the blog soon), so I used that and some tomato sauce I had on hand. We also used some fresh mozzarella, a little ricotta, parmesan, fresh herbs, prosciutto (Ella’s favorite), and some sliced Italian sausage. Everyone loves to make theirs just the way they like it.

You could, of course, make a larger pizza using this guide. It would need to cook a little longer, and a pizza peel would work a lot better than a spatula because of the size. I have no idea where my pizza peel is. I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in storage, dreaming of a new house with a pizza oven.

Happy Monday!

Pizza on the Grill

(4 servings)

basic pizza dough (you can also use store-bought, make sure it’s enough for 4 servings)

cornmeal, for dusting the bottom of the pizza

Suggested Toppings

tomato pizza sauce

pesto

fresh mozzarella

ricotta cheese

Italian sausage

prosciutto

fresh basil

fresh oregano

parmesan cheese

Place a grill-safe pizza stone on the grates of a cold gas or charcoal grill. A room temperature or cold pizza stone on a hot grill can easily break, so it’s important to preheat it slowly. If you use a gas grill, start with the heat on medium-low and gradually turn up the heat so you don’t have the high flame on the stone right off the bat. This should take about thirty minutes. Use the time to prepare the pizza toppings and assemble the pizzas.

Prep the desired toppings and place them in easy reach for everyone preparing their own pizzas.

Shape the pizza dough into four 7-inch discs (approximate size). I use my fingers to gently stretch and shape the dough rather than rolling it out. Dust 4 large dinner plates with cornmeal and place a disc of dough on each plate. The cornmeal will make the dough slide easily off the plate and keep it from sticking to the stone.

Have each person prepare their pizza to their liking. My only direction is not to go too heavy on sauce and toppings, or it will weigh the pizza down and make the crust soggy. Otherwise, have fun and be creative. The pizza pictured below has tomato sauce with some patches of pesto and ricotta, topped with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, fresh basil, and fresh oregano.

Carefully slide each pizza onto the hot stone. Ours probably could have fit all four, but two at a time was more manageable for the grillmaster (Bob). Close the grill lid and allow the pizzas to cook for approximately 7 – 9 minutes. They should be browned and bubbling. Use a large spatula to remove them from the stone.