“We are not actually grilling the pizza, we are using the grill as an oven”
Brought to the US by Italian immigrants in the late 1800’s, pizza has become one of the most widely eaten foods in the country. Over the years pizzerias have popped up all over the place making pizzas in every shape, way and form.
With the advent of pre made foods, making your own pizza from scratch has become increasingly popular. Being able to buy quality pre-made dough at your local supermarket has made the process easy and fun to the extent that the whole family can get involved.
With that being said, knowing a few techniques will make the process less frustrating.
We ran into hurdles in our first attempts such as just rolling out the dough, thin centers, dough “spring back”, under cooked areas and more. With a little research, and some trial and error, we have gotten the process down pretty “pat”.
OK, here are some basics:
Buy decent dough. This may require trying a few and evaluating.
ALLOW THE DOUGH TO REST. This makes forming the dough a lot easier.
Use a pizza stone. A stone will distribute heat evening over the bottom of the pizza.
Give your grill time to completely heat up (lid, sides, all its components etc.). You need radiant heat to properly cook the top.
Don’t over heat the grill. Too hot you burn the bottom and under bake the top.
Flour and flour. Flour any area the dough will touch to keep the dough from sticking.
Place flour on the peel before putting the formed pizza on it.
Minimize “liquidy” toppings. It will make the top soggy.
This should go without saying, cook raw meats before topping.
Open a bottle of red wine, turn on some opera and get to work.
Ingredients
- 1 Ball of Dough
- 2 cups Flour
- 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- Topping of Choice
Preparation
Gently remove the dough from the wrapping. The less unnecessary handling the better.
Lightly flour the surface where you plan on working the dough.
Place the dough on the floured surface and gently form the dough into a ball and place a bowl over it. Allow to rest for about 1 hour.
After one hour, push your index finger into the center of the dough and if the indentation remains it is ready to kneat.
Start spreading the dough from the center first just to start flattening.
Move to the edges and start to spread.
Move back to the center and again start to spread to the center.
Caution: don’t over spread the center or it will become thin.
As the dough starts to flatten, pick it up off the surface and hold by the edge and work the edges turn the dough in doing so.
Place the dough back on the surface and keep moving from edges to center until you have spread the dough to size.
Apply your toppings.
Coat the edge of the pizza with the vegetable oil.
Slide the peal under the pizza.
Grilling
With the grill heated up to 450 to 500 (including the pizza stone).
When you hit your target temp, wait about 5 minutes before putting the pizza on the grill to allow the grill interior to heat up completely.
Place the pizza on the stone sliding off the peal and close the lid.