Grilled Pizza

We have officially entered grilling season and one our favorites is grilled pizza. Our grill can get way hotter than our oven and it doesn’t heat up the house in the summer. Tonight, it was more about dodging the rain than heating up the house. We made four different pizzas tonight, one for my son, one for my wife, one for me, and the garbage pizza for all the other leftovers. We followed our usual Chris Bianco dough recipe and had some new additions to the toppings mix. For the dough

• 2 C. warm water (hot to the touch but you could keep it there all day, like a nice hot tub)
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 5ish C. flour
• olive oil
• salt

Proof the yeast in water and sugar for about 10 minutes so that it gets nice and bubbly. Add about half the flour and mix to a nice sticky dough. Put another 1ish cups on the counter and kneed in. You will need more but add it in 1/4-1/3 C. increments. Kneed for at least 10 minutes until a nice soft dough forms. Put in a oil coated bowl, cover, and let rise for about 1-2 hours. Divide into 4 balls and let rise for another 30-60 minutes. Once risen. Roll out into about 12 inch rounds. Over high preheated grill, grill on one side keeping an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn. Rotate as needed. It took about 3-5 minutes for each round. Only grill one side for right now.

For our toppings:

• Tomato puree
• 1 lb bacon
• 16 clams
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• small handful basil, finely sliced
• mushrooms, sauteed
• onion jam (slow cooked yellow onions, with balsamic added for the last 15 minutes)
• arugula
• pecorino Romano
• grated mozzarella
• creamy goat cheese

The top picture is the garbage pizza. For my son’s pizza, he just wanted bacon and basil.

For my wife’s pizza, we grilled some clams and topped with olive oil, garlic, mushrooms, pecorino, and goat cheese. After it was done, we topped with arugula.

For mine, I was feeling vegetarian so did a tomato puree, basil, mushroom, onion jam, garlic, and mozzarella.

To make them on the grill, have 2 sides of direct heat and indirect. Put toppings on the pre-grilled side so that the raw side is facing down. Grill on the direct heat to get the crust done. Then move to indirect to melt the cheese and get all the toppings warm. If you haven’t tried grilled pizza, give it a try.