Pizza is the world's favorite fast food. We get it everywhere at home, in restaurants, on street corners. Some three billion pizzas are sold each year in the United States alone, an average of 46 slices person. Pizza is a baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and often other toppings such as sausage or olive. The word pizza is to be from an Old Italian word meaning "a point," which in turn became the Italian word "pizzica," which means "to pinch" or "pluck."
"Fire up the grill and get your pizza on"
Now, I'm going to show you how to make grilled pizza, taking you through the steps so that you can enjoy crispy charred pizza.
Ingredients
Preparing the grill and toppings
Make the dough
You can either make pizza dough from scratch or use prepared pizza dough. Both will work fine. Note that if you are preparing the pizza dough for a party, you can make several pizza dough balls, stack them separated by parchment paper, and keep them in the refrigerator for up to two hours before cooking.
Stretch and shape the pizza dough
Shape the pizza dough by flattening it with your hands on a surface dusted with flour. Either use your fingers to stretch the dough out or hold up the dough's edges with your fingers, letting the dough hang and stretch while working around the edges.
Once you've stretched the dough, let it sit for 5 minutes, and then push out the edges with your fingers again, until you have an excellent round shape, about 12-inches in diameter. Please do not make a raised rim, and it will interfere with the grilling process.
Grill one side of the pizza crust
Make sure the grill is hot. Now dip a tightly folded-up paper towel in olive oil and use tongs to wipe the grill grates. Place a pizza dough base on a lightly flour dusted cookie sheet. Let the dough slide off the cookie sheet onto the hot grill grates. Close the lid of the grill and let cook for 2 minutes.
Check how well the dough is grilling
After 2 minutes, open the grill and check underneath the dough to see if it is getting browned. If it is on one side but not another, use a spatula or tongs to rotate the dough 90 degrees and cook for another minute. If it is not beginning to brown, cover the grill and continue to cook a minute at a time until the bottom has started to brown. It should only take a couple of minutes if you have a hot grill. The top of the pizza dough will start bubbling up with air pockets.
Remove grilled dough and flip it over onto a cookie sheet
Once the pizza dough has browned lightly on one side, use your cookie sheet or pizza peel to remove it from the grill. Use a spatula to flip the dough over so that the grilled side is now up. Keep the grill covered so it retains its heat for the next step.
Brush with olive oil, add toppings
Paint the grilled surface of the pizza with a little extra virgin olive oil, then cover with one spoon of sauce no more, or you'll end up with a soggy pizza. Sprinkle on your toppings, ending with Mozzarella cheese and if using meat, put that over the cheese. Remember to go light on the toppings, or your pizza will be heavy and soggy.
Slide the topped pizza back onto the grill
Slice and serve!
NOTES
The pizza cooks so quickly on the grill that all toppings must be cooked and prepped in advance.
All grills are different. It may take a few tries to figure out the time and temperature for your grill.
I have tested this recipe on a gas grill. You can certainly use other grills, but additional adjustments may need to be made.
Delicious pizza recipes and combinations to try:
Margarita
Your favorite tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and grated parmesan cheese.
Hawaiian
Tomato sauce, fresh pineapple, fresh mozzarella, Canadian bacon, red onion, and grated parmesan cheese.
Summer Veggie
Tomato sauce, mini bell peppers (sliced), red onion, baby Bella mushrooms, jalapeno, grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, dried oregano.
You can make any pizza you like, though. In the interest of keeping things light and simple this time of year, I usually stick to cheese and summer veggies and herbs. Everything you need to know about how to cook pizza on the grill! The best, easy grilled pizza you'll ever make without a pizza stone. It's chewy, crispy, and perfect for adding your favorite toppings.