One of the best things I ever did was to start cooking pizza on the grill. I don’t remember where I first heard/saw the idea, but it’s fabulous for many reasons:
1. Heat. We live in an area where air conditioning is scarce. If you’re going to cook pizza in any other season but winter, get ready to sweat. We move pizza production outside come springtime.
2. Taste. If you’re going to do pizza on the grill you need to cook it so it gets those nice little tasty grilled lines on it. You know what I mean. That’s what gives it that grilled taste.
3. Versatility. It’s a fun alternative to other standard grill foods and, just like any pizza, you can put whatever you want on it. Do it as an appetizer when you have people over for a cookout- it’s that quick and easy.
Here comes another list because now you need to know how to do it. Everyone has their own way, but this is what I’ve come up with:
1. Acquire pizza dough. I usually make my pizza dough. This is a good, quick recipe that works well on the grill: http://www.food.com/recipe/quick-mix-quick-rise-pizza-dough-186583. However, you can get pizza dough already made at grocery stores and bakeries- cheap.
2. Heat the grill to medium high heat.
3. Spread out your pizza dough as best you can on parchment or wax paper, trying to make it as thin as you can. Bring the dough to the grill and peel the pizza dough off the paper. When you do this the dough is bound to bunch up a bit, so try and just spread it out with your hands- like those pizzeria guys. Put the dough on the grill. You might even be able to spread it out a little more while it’s on there.
4. Let the dough cook until it’s firm on the underside and you start to get those nice grill marks, then flip it over like a pancake.
5. Top the pizza. The key here is go light with the cheese and sauce. This is not the time to make a cheesy, saucy pizza.
6. Cover it up. Let the grill act like an oven to cook the toppings and the bottom of the dough will get cooked as well.
7. Take it off before it burns and enjoy.
This is not something that the kids can help with while it’s on the grill, but they can help assemble ingredients and toppings for you. They also get to frolic in the yard while you cook, so it’s a win-win situation.
