How to grill pizza: Finishing the pizza

Grilled Pepperoni Pizza

GRILLED PIZZA - You've made your own homemade pizza dough or purchased it. Now it's time to fire up your grill and start smokin! How hot does the grill need to be? Does the pizza dough fall through the grates? This article will tell you how to grill pizza easily and deliciously!

Remember, in the previous two articles I talked about How To Make Grilled Pizza and How To Make Homemade Pizza Dough. Refer to these detailed articles often until it becomes second nature to you. Now it's time to put all that info to good use. Chill the beer, uncork the wine, invite some friends over, and let's grill some pizza!

Just a Quick Recap of Tools & Ingredients

Bring ALL your things to the grill now. Once you start, the process goes rather quickly, so you need to be organized before you even turn on the grill! You don't want to be running back and forth for tools and/or ingredients.
Pizza Dough - see Pizza Dough article
Sauce - whatever you like
Toppings - whatever goes with your sauce
Seasonings - Mrs Dash, fresh basil, oregano, flavored sea salt, etc
2 Cutting Boards
Long Handled Tongs
Metal Spatula
1 large sharp Chefs Knife
Paper Towel (you'll use plenty of it, so bring the roll)
Spoons for toppings and sauce
Plates, utensils, beer, wine, wine glasses, corkscrew, etc

A Word About Aluminum Foil

I won't go into all the issues associated with aluminum foil because you're not using it for any length of time. The point is, this is my secret to good looking grilled pizzas. You have to be able to transfer the flimsy dough from your workspace to the grill. If I'm grilling 4 pizzas, I cut off 4 large pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil. I "roll" one pizza at a time on a cornmeal dusted piece of foil. Once they're flat, I can stack them one on top of each other with foil between each pizza. This method makes it so much easier to transfer and flip the dough on the hot grill in one piece. After all, it's not just about good taste, it's also about the awesome presentation!

How Hot Does the Grill Need to Be?

Crank up that grill! Assuming you're using a gas grill, light it and preheat on high for about 10-15 minutes. If you're using charcoal, no problem! Just make sure to give it enough time to get those coals white hot. This is important! The grill HAS to be HOTTER than Hell when you slap that baby on those grates. Don't be scared! The dough won't fall through the grates as long as it's searingly HOT! I can't stress this enough. It needs to be HOT! Seconds before grilling, turn the heat down to medium. Pour yourself a glass of Chianti.

How to Grill Pizza

Leaving the pizza dough on the foil, open the grill and in one swift motion, flip the dough upside down on the grill, foil and all, trying to keep it all in one piece. Then quickly peel off the foil, adjust the dough if you have to and close the top. Leave it in there for about 3 minutes. The experts say not to peek, but every grill is different, and we peek each time just in case one edge is browning faster than the other. Those nice grill marks on the bottom are gret, but make sure it doesn't burn! Use the tongs to move the dough around. Just be sure to leave it on the grill for at least 2 minutes before moving otherwise it will tear.
When you're happy with the way it looks, remove the dough from the grill and transfer to cutting board, grilled side up. This is the side you'll be "decorating".
Add sauce, toppings, cheese and sprinkle with seasonings.
Turn one of the two grill burners off. Place pizza back on the grill, cover and grill for another 10 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and bubbly and bottom is browned and cooked through. If the bottom starts to cook faster than you expected, turn the pizza around or move it to another spot.
Remove to cutting board, slice and serve with a second glass of Chianti!
One pizza should serve four, but that all depends on how much you've had to drink, and how hungry your guests are!

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