I made a list of 33 things I want to do before I turn 33 in June 2014.  See the full list here.

22. Grill a pizza without tears.  I realize this does not seem difficult.  But attempts #1 and #2 last summer were disastrous.  I’m blaming the humidity.

———————————————————————–

YOU GUYS, I DID IT.  Attempt #3, nearly a year later, resulted in tasty homemade grilled pizza and NO TEARS.  Success.

First up – the toppings.  Goat cheese, mushrooms, roasted peppers, Parmesan, spinach, and their good friend (not pictured) crumbled Italian sausage.

Oh, actually, the real First Up – spend 20 minutes Googling “how to grill a pizza.”  I got this.

And, the crust.  I used Trader Joe’s original pizza dough, purchased earlier in the day, and kept in the refrigerator right up until I was ready to use it.  I read some reviews that said to take it out of the fridge 20 minutes before using, but last time my dough was super sticky, so I decided to risk the chilled dough.  It worked just fine.

I split the dough into 3 lumps on a floured countertop with floured hands, and patted them out.  I read that they should be about as big as a human head, but that didn’t seem to happen for me.  Next time I might use a rolling pin ’cause I think a thinner crust would taste better.

I transferred each dough to an oiled piece of parchment paper, then spread a little olive oil and sprinkled salt on to the actual dough.  One blog noted that TJ’s dough isn’t very salty, so this seemed like a good idea.  I thought our final pizza was the right saltiness, so I’ll keep this step next time.

Transporting the dough was an issue last time, but the oiled parchment worked well.  If I do get dough as large as a human head, I would probably use a cookie sheet instead of just my hand.

Then we did the awkward “what angle should we do this at?” dough flip, and eventually successfully got all 3 crusts onto a very hot, oiled grill.

3 minutes on one side, then 1 minute on the other side.

Next up:  Toppings.  We put them on the side that was more well-done.  On two of them.  The other, I forgot, and spread the goat cheese on the less-well done side.  That one seemed to be a little soggy, so I’d definitely recommend putting the toppings on the side that is more cooked at this point, especially if you’re using a thinner sauce like marinara.

Topped it all off with cheese then returned to the grill until it was melty and browned and a little charred on the bottom and super delicious.

 

REALLY, REALLY delicious.  Grilled Pizza, I think we might be friends now.

Edited to add: a friend followed this post and the 3 minutes on her really hot grill burned her crust. So…maybe less time, depending on your grill. Keep an eye on your crust. Sorry, K!