Grilled Pizzas

One of our favorite dinners is "make  your own pizza" night.  When we first started doing it I would set out a huge variety of toppings for the kids to choose from, and all they would use is the pepperoni, olives, and Canadian Bacon. So to prevent unnecessary labor and waste, our topping bar usually only consists of a few well loved toppings, but when we have guests over we get fancy and break out more!

First you need some good dough.  This is the recipe I use.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 t. yeast
2 t. sugar
2 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
4 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add sugar, salt, and olive oil.  Mix in enough of the flour to make a soft dough.  Knead dough on a floured surface.  Cover and let rise 1-4 hours until ready to use.  Divide dough into 6 balls and let rest 10 minutes.  Roll out and place on greased pans dusted lightly with cornmeal.

I purchased a dozen 10 inch pizza pans from an online restaurant supplier a few years back, and we use them all the time.  Click here if you need some too :)

Then you need some sauce.  You can buy some or it's really simple to make.  For the grilled pizzas I like to make a fresh summertime sauce made with fresh basil from my backyard.

Summertime Basil Pizza Sauce

1 can Hunt's Fire Roasted Tomatoes (or petite diced)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 Tbs Parmesan cheese grated
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

1. Wash and rough chop basil leaves.  Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

2. Let sit 2 or more hours before using.

Then set out your favorite toppings like canadian bacon, pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, green peppers, bacon crumbles, tomatoes, pineapple, etc.

Sauce your crust, sprinkle with grated mozzarella, top with your toppings.  Here's mine:

The dough is too soft to place directly on the grill, so I oven bake these a 425 for 8 minutes first.  They come out not quite done like this:

Then take them outside and slide them off the pans onto a preheated medium low grill.

Close the cover and let 'em cook.  The whole point in grilling them is so that the crust on your pizzas will be phenomenal, and your backyard will smell like a brick oven pizzaria.  I check the bottom crust often and pull them off the grill when it looks dark brown and crispy but not burned. Let them cool 5 minutes, slice and serve.  Trust me, these are really good!