Grilled Pizza

Got the idea for this experiment after reading a recipe for a sweet potato and sausage pizza on the grill from the newspaper this week. It seems a little risky to put a sheet of thin dough directly onto a blazing grill but it worked extremely well--makes pizza just like the brick oven. The crust only needs a few minutes on the grill so you want to fry up all your veggy and meat toppings before throwing it all together on the grill. I used Bobby Flay's pizza crust recipe and picked up whatever looked good at the market for toppings.

Pizza Dough:

• 2/3 cup lukewarm water (105 degrees F to 115 degrees F)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for oiling bowl
• 1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt

1. In a large bowl stir together 1/3 cup water, yeast, and sugar and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 3/4 cups flour, cornmeal, and salt andblend until the mixture forms a dough. Knead dough on a floured surface, incorporating as much of remaining 1/4 cup flour, as necessary, to prevent dough from sticking, until smooth about 5 to 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball.
2. Lightly oil the sides and bottom of a large bowl with oil, add the dough, turn to coat in the oil, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Gently punch the dough down and divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle that is 1/8-inch thick. Brush off excess flour and transfer the dough to a baking sheet, cover each circle of dough with plastic wrap and continue stacking rolled out pieces on top of each other. Wrap well with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to grill. (I got two medium size pizza crusts from this recipe)

Sauce:

tomato paste

garlic powder

dired oregano, basil, thyme


Assembly:

I brushed one side of the crust with olive oil and tossed it onto the grill on low heat for about 2-3 minutes with the lid down. It's really easy to burn the crust so check often and be careful your grill isn't too hot. After flipping, load up the pie with sauce or oil and all your toppings. Cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Toppings:

Pie I:

tomato sauce

onions

mushrooms

kobasa sausage

mozzarella 

black olives

Pie II:

(white pizza)

additional olive oil

garlic powder

poblano peppers

onions

mushrooms

anchovies

goat cheese

my jealous friends