Meatless Monday - Grilled Pizza

I've been intrigued by the thought of a grilled pizza for a while now, but I've also been a bit intimidated by them.  I shouldn't have been!  As long as you prepare all of your toppings ahead of time, grilled pizza is easy and fast - a perfect meal for a summer day.

If this is your first time to grill a pizza, zip over to Slice, the pizza blog from Serious Eats.  They have a wonderful tutorial on making grilled pizza.  I have three tips from my experience grilling pizza.  First, I was glad that my pizza dough was not a super soft dough.  Having a slightly stiffer dough made it easier to get the dough on the grill.  (You can find the recipe for the dough I used at the bottom.  As always, it's a breadmaker dough for simplicity.)  A pizza peel is nice, but not entirely necessary.  We would have been fine using just a pizza pan and some tongs to get the crust on and off of the grill.

Second, preparation is key!  Have all of the ingredients for the pizza chopped and ready to throw on the dough quickly.  Once you flip the crust, you want to get the ingredients on as fast as possible to give them a little time to cook.  This pizza is done in minutes, so take your time beforehand to do a nice mise en place. 

Third, if the ingredient needs to cook, do it ahead of time or make sure that they are cut appropriately.  As I said before, the pizza is done in minutes.  There simply isn't much time for the ingredients to cook.  So, you might want to consider slicing your onions paper thin or else roasting or sauteing them ahead of time; otherwise, you'll be eating hunks of warm, raw onion, which may or may not be what you're looking for.

We made a plain cheese pizza for the kids and a Greek pizza for us.  They both turned out absolutely delicious.  (I actually forgot to add roasted red peppers to our Greek pizza.  It was still great, but the roasted peppers would be a nice addition.)  Next time, we'll be making a BBQ chicken pizza at my son's request.

If you have a grill, give this a try.  Grilling a pizza is surprisingly easy and definitely tasty - and it keeps the heat out of your house on a hot summer day to boot!

Grilled Greek Pizza
(See How to Make Grilled Pizzas for a lesson on the process)

Sauce:
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove garlic, minced
juice from 1/2 of a lemon, about a TBSP

Mix together ingredients and set aside until ready to use.

Toppings:
black olives, chopped
green onions, chopped
sliced roasted red bell peppers
feta cheese to taste

Shape pizza dough as desired.  Cook pizza dough on a medium hot grill (350-400 F) for a couple of minutes.  Flip the pizza and add the sauce and toppings as quickly as possible.  Close the grill lid and let the pizza cook for another couple of minutes or until cheese is melted and the dough is cooked as desired.  Use a pizza peel or some tongs and a pizza pan to remove the pizza from the grill and enjoy!



Breadmaker Pizza Dough

1 1/3 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp gluten
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in your breadmaker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Program for Pizza Dough and press start.  When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, immediately remove the dough from the bread machine and place in an oiled bowl.  Let rise for another 30 min.  Use the dough for pizza or pizza rolls.