Grilled Pizza

Over the weekend, we got a grill.  It's enormous.  It's gas with 4 burners and it also has a burner on the side that you can cook on.  I think it's fabulous.  It is just way too hot to cook inside.  We christened it by grilling good ol' American hamburgers for our cookout with Justin's parents.  For the 4th of July, we decided to grill pizza.  Not very American, at least by some standards, but tasty and fun!

I started out by making my pizza dough.  Please do not buy the kind from the store.  It's filled with who knows what.  Taking the time [all of about 10 minutes except for rise time] to make your own is well worth it, and much less expensive. 

Pizza Dough

Begin by adding 1 tsp active dry yeast to 1 1/2 c warm water.  Leave it alone while you do the next part.  Combine 4 c flour and 1 tsp salt in the bowl of your stand mixer.  I've done this by hand and with a handheld mixer and trust me, avoid both if possible.  A stand mixer is the way to go when making any kind of bread.  Anyway, drizzle in 1/3 c good olive oil while the mixer is going on low.  Now go back to your yeast mixture and gently stir it.  Drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture until the dough forms a ball.  Here's where you can use your hands if you're feeling extra muscle-y.  Drizzle a little olive oil onto a clean bowl and toss the dough right in.  Turn it over once or twice to coat it in oil.  Cover it with a clean towell and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it rises.  You can also put it in the fridge and it'll rise over about 2 days, if you want to make it on say a Wednesday for the pizza you're going to eat on Friday.  I wouldn't keep it in the fridge longer than 3 days.  It also freezes beautifully for about 6 months.  You'll get enough to make 2 medium-ish pizzas, give or take.  Note: this last time I used "Rapid Rise" yeast and I did not have to wait but about 1 hour for it to rise well. 

On to grilling!

After you divide the dough in half, brush olive oil on the first side.  Then just slap it down on your grill [oiled side down, of course] and get that other side oiled.

After you've done that, LEAVE IT ALONE!  You'll be able to tell when it gets a little charred on the bottom side and it's time to flip.  You'll also smell it.  But be careful, sometimes by the time you smell something that you think is done, it's too late.  Don't walk away.  For me, it took about 3-4 minutes.

Here's what it looks like after it's flipped.  Help. Me. Rhonda.  I could just eat that.  The things you can do with just plain old grilled bread.  But we've got toppings for these babies!

Well, not a lot of toppings were had, actually.  I had sliced tomato, chorizo [organic chicken], sauteed red onion and yellow pepper, and a little cheese. 

You can see the that one on the right got a little messed up on the edge.  No one will care about that when you serve it to them, trust me.  Once you accept that fact that cooking is in no way perfect [baking is an entirely different matter], you will feel so free in the kitchen, or on your back porch. 

In fact, that little nugget of wisdom, when applied properly, can pretty much get you through anything in life.

Time for our closeup!

This is the one that got a little messed up.  I bet you wouldn't have noticed because you got distracted by the gorgeous grill marks.  What a gracious dinner guest you are.

Next time, you're invited! 

We also ate it for supper the next night, warmed up in the oven.  It was good the second time around, so you know it's a keeper. 

EDIT: Please don't talk about the condition of my cookie sheets behind my back.