Are you looking for a super simple FUN meal that the whole family can enjoy? Well, look no further than GRILLED PIZZA. I am not going to lie, I was slightly skeptical about this trendy meal at first. I mean how do you even get the pizza dough off the grill? However, once I learned a few little tricks this “unicorn of a family supper” was quickly added to our summer repertoire, and will remain until the snow covers our grill!
Ingredients:
- 1 package of fresh dough (you can find these in the dairy section of your local grocery store) — I like to use whole wheat dough
- One jar of pizza sauce or you can be super ambitious and make your own
- Toppings of your choice (we have used arugula, prosciutto, olives, onions, pesto, ham, pineapple, or whatever we have on hand)
- Shredded mozzarella
- Fresh chunks of mozzarella (totally makes a difference, so get the fresh ball of mozz, which can also be easily located in your local fav grocery store)
- Aluminum foil cut into 12 by 12-inch squares
- Add a couple of tablespoons cornmeal (not essential but certainly adds a little something something)
- Cooking spray
Step One: Bring your pizza dough to room temperature by placing it in an oiled bowl and let the dough rest and rise for at LEAST two hours. This essential step will allow you to easily manipulate the dough.
Step Two: While dough is rising prep all your toppings and shred cheese. It is also a good time to open a bottle of wine and put on the tunes; who doesn’t enjoy a dance sesh while slicing and dicing. This is also a great step for the kiddos to help out with. Our girls love pitting olives.
Step Three: From this step on we bring everything OUTDOORS! It helps to have all the toppings and supplies on a tray. This is also a good time to preheat your grill to 450 degrees. Then take a square of aluminum foil and spray it generously with cooking spray and dust it with cornmeal.
Step Four: Take a handful of dough (about the size of a clementine, I use kitchen shears to make the dough into smaller balls) and carefully stretch dough into “a sort of” circle shape. Think rustic here people, as a math teacher I would certainly like my pizza to have a uniform diameter, but it just ain’t going to happen. My husband found this step to be a little challenging, but it gets easier with practice. Kids LOVE this part but it does require some adult assistance.
Step Five: Place sketched out dough that is on aluminum foil onto the heated grill and CLOSE the grill top. The dough only needs to cook for three to four minutes.
Step Six: Once the dough is golden and crispy carefully remove dough and aluminum foil from the grill. FLIP the dough over so the grilled side is FACING UP on the same square of aluminum foil. This ensures that both sides of the dough get that crunchy goodness.
Step Seven: Top the grilled side of the dough with your yummy toppings. This part is so fun and interactive because everyone gets to be their own chef of their individual pizza. This is another great kid step because they can pick out all their toppings. Or they can be like my child and refuse to add toppings so they just eat “grilled bread,” which I was fine with because we were outdoors having fun and of course had wine.
Step Eight: Place the topped pizza back on the grill and CLOSE the grill top again. Cook pizza for additional 3 to 4 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and everything is melted into tasty goodness. Remove cooked pizza from grill and let sit for a minute or so. Or you can do what I do every time and get impatient and burn the roof of your mouth because you just can’t wait and it smells so good!
This is such a wonderful recipe to do with friends and family because everyone gets involved! Added bonus your house stays cool because you are not heating up the oven and the mess is contained to the outdoors.
Have you tried grilled pizza?
