I had never thought about how to grill a pizza before, but it was the end of a long hot day in the middle of a long hot Arizona summer. I had worked a 10 hour day and was finally headed home. I was hot, tired, and hungry. All I wanted to do was get home, get changed, and get supper.
But first I needed to stop at the store for something to take to the potluck at work the next day. My choice was either to stop on my way home or go back later. So I stopped. “But make it quick” I said to myself. So I stormed the store on a mission — determined to get in and out and home.
Already in the deli aisle, I had a brilliant idea! “Just pick up something for dinner too! Something easy! Something effortless! Yes! Yes!” I’m thinking to myself. Racing through the deli section, my eyes landed on a great selection of pizza. Perfect!! We all love pizza. So with a Supreme pizza and a big bottle of Sprite in the basket, I threw in a salad and a nice watermelon just to round out the dinner and headed out the door to fight the traffic home.
Carrying in my bags with the pizza on top, I found Mr.B was already home and thinking about dinner too. A man of action, he had already cleaned off the barbeque grill and was heating it up in anticipation of whatever delight was on the menu that night. As he looked at the pizza and at me — and as I looked at the hot grill and at him — we both said “Why NOT!” And that, boys and girls, is the true story of how we “discovered” how to grill a pizza.
As it turns out, grilling a pizza is actually very simple. The main benefit to grilling the pizza outside is that it doesn’t heat up your house. So the A/C doesn’t have to go into overdrive to cool the kitchen back down. Another benefit is a wonderful crispy crust. Since the grill is very hot, the crust gets a wonderful crunchy texture. Don’t like a crisp, crunchy pizza? That’s fine, just lower the grill temp to let the pizza cook slower.
How To Grill A Pizza
1) Clean off the barbeque grill and turn it on high to heat.
2) Be sure to take the plastic wrapper off of the pizza. (Did I really need to tell you that?)
3) When the grill is hot, slide the pizza off of the cardboard round onto the hot grill. Lower the grill cover to keep in the heat.
4) Check the pizza after about 10 minutes. You may want to rotate the pizza so that all sides hit the “HOT” side of the grill. Once the bottom is browned to your liking, turn down the heat or slide the pizza over to the cooler side of the grill. If you have more than one burner, turn off one side so that you are now cooking with an indirect heat. The crust will continue to brown, but not as fast.
5) Bake for about another 10 minutes to let the pizza dough fully bake and for the cheese to melt into a cheesy perfection. The bottom will be brown and crusty.
See that brown and crispy crust? Yum!!
Total cooking time on the grill was 20 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to set out the salad and the watermelon. Half an hour after arriving home after a hectic day at work, I was eating dinner on my patio, relaxing with Mr. B, and enjoying a beautiful Arizona sunset.
Thanks for cooking with Sunshine On My Shoulder.
Leave a Reply