Grill Pizza
First make Pizza Sauce
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Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 28.2 ounce can crushed tomatoes (look for cans with BPA-free lining)
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • Kosher salt to taste (I usually use ½ teaspoon)
 Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute, until fragrant. Pour in the tomatoes, salt, basil, and red pepper flakes.
  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until thickened.
  3. If you used diced tomatoes instead of crushed, you can process the sauce in a food processor to make it smooth. I usually process it even when I use crushed tomatoes just to make sure it’s completely smooth. This is totally optional and really just indicative of how ridiculous I am.

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Ingredients:

  • Pizza dough (make your own, or Trader Joe’s has a great fresh dough for about $1)
  • Flour
  • Cutting board/Pizza peel
  • Olive oil
  • Pizza sauce (I always use the recipe at the bottom of this post)
  • Toppings

Instructions:

1. I almost always make my dough using the no-knead method from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in 5 Minutes a Day. Sometimes I add a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder to the dough, sometimes I add some dried basil, and sometimes I just leave the recipe alone. It’s very versatile, and I’ve described how to make the whole wheat version in this post. Anyway, step 1 of pizza grilling: make (or buy) your favorite dough, and grab a handful about the size of a softball. You can make a bigger pizza, but it will be a bit more difficult to get on and off the grill.

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2. Place the dough on a floured surface that you can pick up and move easily (a pizza peel or large cutting board works well), and press down to flatten slightly. You can stretch the dough out further with your hands, but I usually use a rolling pin. I like to make my pizzas pretty thin, but they will be a bit easier to handle while grilling if you leave them a little thicker. Once you have the dough rolled out, drizzle with olive oil and brush it evenly across the dough.

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3. Carefully lift the dough from the surface, balancing it mostly on the back of your hands and knuckles so your fingertips don’t poke through the dough. Place the dough oil-side down on a grill set to medium-low, then put the cover back on the grill. After 5 minutes, check the dough to see how firm it’s become. You may have some bubbles in your dough, and that’s okay. I usually use a spatula to gently lift up one of the sides to check the level of done-ness. When the dough is ready, it should be simple to slide it off the grill using a spatula. On our grill, it takes about 10 minutes before the dough is ready to come off. When you remove the dough, turn the grill to low heat.

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4. Remove the dough from the grill, and set it down on your portable surface with the oil/cooked-side down. Drizzle olive oil over the uncooked side, then flip the dough.

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5. Top your pizza with whatever toppings you desire. I like to keep mine pretty simple, with sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil. The Beast, however, goes to town (see below). Once your pizza is topped to your liking, set it back on the grill and close the cover. The reason the grill should be set to low heat for this step is to keep the bottom of the crust from burning before the heat melts all the toppings.

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6. It usually takes about 7-10 minutes until the pizza is ready, but it will depend on the amount of toppings you layer on. For example, The Beast’s monster pizza takes a few minutes longer than mine to be ready.

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