Pizza on the Grill - How to Beat the Kitchen Heat

We love us some pizza here on the Farm.  In fact, I make pizza for dinner once a week.  This is about my personal pizza eating limit.  However, I could probably make it three times a week and everyone else would be happy.

I love making pizza because first off, it makes my family happy and, second, it's just plain yummy.  Throw in that it's a budget friendly meal and you've got a winner in my eyes.  We top pizza with just about anything around here.  Like soup, pizza is a great way to use up all the little bits of meat and veggies sitting around in those little plastic containers in your fridge.

Unfortunately for my family, we haven't been having pizza making weather in the past week or so.  Hot, humid weather doesn't make we want to crank the oven up to 450 degrees for any period of time.  Ugh.

But, much to the joy of the family, we had pizza this week even with the heat and humidity!  I made pizza on the grill!

Oh. My. It was good.  And very. Very. Very. Easy.

I'd seen grilled pizza in magazines for years and wanted to give them a try, but somehow, it just all seemed beyond me.  Apparently, I wanted to try something new more than I wanted to turn on the oven.

You can make pizza on your grill.  Here's how:

-Make your favorite pizza dough (or buy some at the store).
-Cut the dough into balls and roll them into personal sized pizza crusts.  I laid two crusts side by side on a plate, covered that layer with a piece of waxed paper and they repeated the process.  This worked ok.  The dough stuck to the waxed paper sometimes.  Next time, I'll use saran wrap or just lay them on a big greased baking sheet or two.
-Get your toppings together.  You'll need olive oil and salt and pepper for sure, plus whatever you else you want.  Maybe some mozarella cheese, some veggies, some meat or a bit of sauce.  If you use sauce, go easy on it.  Using a heavy hand on the sauce will give you a soggy crust.  If you haven't ever tried pizza without regular sauce, give it a shot.  You'll like it! Also, try to slice your toppings pretty thin so they'll cook fast.
-Head out to the grill.  We have a gas grill.  If you've got a charcoal one, you're on your own for getting that thing ready.  I've never done it in my life.
-Put the grill on high and let it sit for a bit.
-Spray or brush oil on the tops of the crusts.  I used a oil sprayer thing from Pampered Chef.
-Take two crusts and place them on the grill oil side down.
-Let the crusts cook for 1-2 minutes.  They'll start to get a bit bubbly.
-Right before you flip the crusts, put oil on the side that is up.
-Flip the crusts.  Let them cook for another minute or two. 
-Place on your toppings. 
-Let them cook for another 3-4 minutes.  If it looks like your toppings need a bit longer, move the pizza up to the rack above your main grill.
-Slide off your pizza and try to let it cool a bit before you start devouring it.

It's really that easy!  The meal was made even easier because we ate on paper plates outside at the picnic table right by the grill.  Ahhh...no big dishes and no floor to sweep.

Eveyone here gave grilled pizza two big thumbs up!  They were happy to hear me say we'll be putting it on the menu at least once a week this summer.  I'll let you know what sort of topping combos we come up with and I'd love to hear any you might have as well.