Pizza on the Grill

You don’t have to have a wood-fired oven to get great pizza. Pizzas can be cooked at home on your grill. The other night we watched Bobby Flay grill really great tasty looking pizzas on his charcoal grill and decided to give it a try. It looked simple enough – Bobby just punched out his dough, brushed it with a little oil, seasoned it with salt and pepper and threw it on a hot grill, turned it once, and in minutes he had a nice crispy grilled pizza, ready for the toppings. We made two different grilled pizzas - one with slow roasted tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil and the other with fresh mozzarella topped with a lemony arugula salad.

Pizza with quick-rise dough

I usually make a simple quick-rising dough using the food processor, shown above and link here, with our homemade tomato sauce and top it with fresh tomatoes and basil. However today we took a short cut and purchased dough from the deli of our local supermarket. Some supermarket dough is better than others (Publix has a great one).

Pizza dough is simple to make at home and next time, if I’m not near a Publix, I will make my own. In addition to my quick rise dough recipe above made in the food processor, I can also recommend a very tasty recipe for homemade dough that we found in the New York Times from pizza mavens Roberta’s in Brooklyn (I know how wonderful this recipe is because my brother-in-law made this dough recently), link to Roberta’s recipe here, and another link to how they make their dough here.

We used Bobby Flay's method of grilling pizza. Bobby says instead of oiling his grill, he prefers to brush his food with the oil and don't forget to season your food with salt and pepper. Bobby uses tongs to flip his pizzas and so did we. We found it was a lot of fun to be outside, enjoying the weather while we flipped pizza dough and the pretty grill marks and crusty edges are part of the reward.

If you're having a cook-out this weekend, shake it up a bit and throw some pizza dough on the grill.

Grilled Pizza with Slow-roasted Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, and Fresh Basil
Grilled pizza dough instructions adapted from Bobby Flay
Topping - My Carolina Kitchen – Sam Hoffer, serves 2
Printable Recipe

1 pound ball of pizza dough, homemade or store bought, brought to room temperature if refrigerated
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut or torn into small pieces
4 tablespoons freshly grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Slow-roasted tomatoes, recipe below
Fresh basil leaves, torn or if small, left whole

Punch and stretch out the pizza dough with your fingers until you reach a desired shape, round or slightly elongated, your choice (not all pizzas have to be round.) Heat a gas or charcoal grill to high and when very hot, brush both sides of the dough with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until golden brown on both sides (use long tongs to flip them), about 2 minutes per side. Remove the pizza to a flat surface (we slid ours on a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal) and top first with the mozzarella, then sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese, and finally arrange the slow-roasted tomatoes on top of the cheeses. Slide the pizza back on the grill, cover and heat just long enough for the mozzarella to melt & become bubbly, about a minute. Remove the pizza and top with basil leaves. Basil leaves tend to turn dark when they get hot, so leave them for last minute. Serve immediately.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes
Adapted from Cooking for Friends from Williams Sonoma, serves 4 – 6
Printable Recipe

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Slice 8 to 10 plums tomatoes in half lengthwise and arrange on a lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet, cut side up. Be careful, the tomatoes will want to slide around. Drizzle with about 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle evenly with some sugar, about a teaspoon, then thinly sliced garlic, a clove or two depending on their size, and plenty of crunchy sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast until the tomatoes turn a deep red and are wrinkled, which should take about 2 to 2 ½ hours. Remove them from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet. They are good warm or at room temperature.

For a nice twist to a pizza, top it with a freshly dressed salad. In this case I used a lemony arugula salad, but you could use any young greens. Roberta’s pizza in the New York Times used arugula, as well as my brother-in-law when he made the NY Times version of this recipe, so I followed suit.

All in all we had a fun time grilling the pizzas, flipping them with tongs like Bobby Flay. Whether you grill your pizzas outdoor, indoors, or use a pizza stone, these are very versatile recipes and are open to your own interpretations.

Grilled Pizza with Mozzarella and Arugula Salad
Grilled Pizza dough instructions adapted from Bobby Flay
Salad topping adapted from Roberta’s & the New York Times, serves 2
Printable Recipe

1 pound ball of pizza dough, Roberta’s homemade, your own homemade, or store bought, brought to room temperature if refrigerated
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut or broken into small pieces
4 tablespoons freshly grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
Crunchy sea salt (I liked Maldon)
2 handfuls baby arugula
Half a lemon, juiced and seeds removed

Punch and stretch out the pizza dough with your fingers until you reach a desired shape, round or slightly elongated your choice (not all pizzas have to be round.) Heat a gas or charcoal grill to high and in the meantime put the arugula in a large bowl and dress it lightly with a splash of olive oil, lemon juice and a further pinch of salt, or to taste. Brush both sides of the dough with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until golden brown on both sides (use long tongs to flip them), about 2 minutes per side. Remove the pizza to a flat surface (we slid ours on a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal) and top with the mozzarella and Parmesan, then slide the pizza back on the grill, cover and heat just long enough for the mozzarella to melt and become bubbly, about a minute. Remove and top with the dressed salad greens and serve immediately.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, and Food on Friday at Carol's Chatter.  

Have a great weekend everyone.