"You have to blog about this."
"This is the funnest thing I've Ever done with a grill."
"I can't believe how cool this is."
"This is the kind of cooking men like."
The above were all comments made by my husband this past weekend when we decided to try one of Sunset's recipes for homemade pizza on the grill. Seriously--I've never seen anyone so enthused about cooking. He was like a kid. And even I have to admit that it was one of the best times we've ever shared in the kitchen. It started with homemade dough...
I used the dough recipe from the magazine, but dumped it into my bread machine instead of following their instructions. Which turned out okay...except that I had to add more flour and let it rise again. Once it was finished rising, I flattened it into rounds on oiled parchment squares as instructed.
At this point I admit that we were very skeptical. The dough was very thin and we were convinced that it was going to slip right through the grill grates, forcing us to order delivery at the last minute.
But as you can see, it bubbled up perfectly on the grill. We laid ours over charcoal to give it a nice smoky flavor, but you can also use gas. The tricky part is getting the dough onto the grill and then peeling the parchment off--it's a little awkward. But once you get the hang of it, it is smooth sailing.
The dough grills up quickly, so we definitely needed to have the toppings ready to go. All told we made 6 pizzas with four different topping combos. They were:
Leftover rotisserie chicken with onion, mozarella and barbecue sauce. Delicious! This was definitely one of our favorites.
A classic tomato sauce with basil and mozzarella. I made the sauce using a can of diced tomatoes (Sunset called for fresh, but I didn't have enough so I improvised) and the basil was from the garden. I did splurge a little and buy "fancy" mozzarella instead of the standard rectangular block or preshredded variety. We both agreed that it was indeed more flavorful, and I highly recommend it.
This one was rosemary, onion and cheese, and it was probably my favorite. The flavor from the rosemary was unexpectedly earthy, and balanced out the onion and cheese really well. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
Finally, our last recipe was sundried tomato with basil and goat cheese. I confess that this was our least favorite combination, but if you are a goat cheese pizza fan, this is a great one to try!
We've certainly made homemade pizza before, but I think the thing that set this apart from our other efforts was the grilling. Not only was it fun to watch the dough bubble up on the grill, but it created a light, crispy crust with a smoky taste. If you've never grilled your pizza before, you've got to try it before summer ends!
Thanks to Sunset for a great idea!
Previous Related Posts about summer cooking:
What a Tart!
Peach Cobbler
How to Eat your Garden Peas (aka last night's dinner)
