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.
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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!
I love your choice of toppings! YUM! Made my mouth water!
Nice work! There is honestly nothing better than homemade pizza! 🙂 And I miss Trader Joe’s for their dough!!!
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Andy and I make homemade pizza at least once a week, if not more. I make a batch of dough (takes about 30 seconds) and have it in the fridge at all times for the nights that we need to do something quick and easy. We do not have the humidity factor so I can’t tell you anything about that but maybe you guys need to come visit we can toss some dough together 🙂