A couple of years ago I took at BBQ cooking class from Jamie Purviance, the author of several Weber cookbooks. Jamie showed us how to cook up a pizza on the grill, something I never thought was possible. Since then I have been hooked and now prefer a BBQ pizza to one made in the oven. The crust is thin, the cooking process is more fun and you don’t have to deal with smoky indoor issues that you often get cooking an oven pizza. I made plenty of errors in the beginning but now I have the procedure nailed down. If you like to barbecue, try a pizza on the grill. Here is how I cook it.
The easiest way to do this is get some ready-made dough from Trader Joe’s. With one package of dough you can make two ten inch pizzas. You also might be able to buy some dough from your local pizza shop. When I am feeling industrious or want a gourmet crust I make the dough from scratch using Joanne Weir’s pizza recipe dough. Joanne’s dough is the best I have tasted but the down side is it takes work and usually you will end up with flour all over the kitchen and yourself.
Divide the ball of dough into two pieces. Begin flattening out the dough by hand into a circle. Give the dough a rest for a few minutes when it no longer wants to flatten out. Try again until you have about an 10-inch diameter. I use a pizza peel and bring it out to the grill. Set the temperature on a gas grill to medium or a tad higher. I have only cooked once on a charcoal grill and this is much trickier. Keep the charcoal heat low and you should be okay.
Take your pizza crust and slide it onto the grill. After about two minutes the dough should not stick to the grill and you will be able to slide it with a spatula about a quarter turn to get nice grill marks on the crust. After another two minutes, take the crust off and turn it over on the pizza peel so the cooked side is facing you. Put all your pizza fixings on the crust and return to the grill for about 4 to 6 minutes. That is all there is to it.
In the top photo, this pizza has cherry tomatoes with pesto and black olives and Prosciutto. I coat the crust with lots of pesto, then add a combo of mozzarella and fontina cheese. Next, I add the cherries tomatoes that had been cut in half and marinated in garlic and olive oil for about 30 minutes. Then a little more cheese and back on the grill. When I take the pizza off the grill, I add the sliced olives and fresh basil.
Bravo. I’m going to make you an honorary Italian.