Dinner/ lunch

Grilled Tomato Basil Pizza

2 Shares

If you follow this blog then you’ve probably figured out by now that we love pizza! Spinach and Feta Pizza. Pesto Pizza. Greek Pizza. Okay…so pretty much every kind of pizza. And so when our oven stopped working recently we had a bit of a problem. Forget the fact that the lack of a working oven is less than ideal when you run a food blog. How about the fact that it’s less than ideal when you love pizza?!!! But don’t worry, we’re resourceful and we have a grill. Today we’ll go over a quick and easy solution to the question, “How do you grill pizza?”, and we’ll show you a super easy Tomato and Basil Pizza that you can add to your pizza lineup.

Basil Pizza

Basil is one of those herbs that we always seem to have in abundance in our garden. It’s super easy to grow and makes a great addition to a lot food and drinks when you want that fresh basil flavor. And others obviously agree that it makes a great pizza topping as Basil Pizza recipes abound across the web. Check out this Nectarine Basil Pizza with Balsamic Reduction from Alexandra Cooks …it looks really good! Adding that one to our “must try list”. But I (Greg) was operating without an oven and the wife and kids were traveling so I was looking for something that was going to be super easy to execute. Accordingly, I grabbed some basil from the garden and paired it with some grape tomatoes and mozzarella. Simple.

So the next hurdle…

How to Grill Pizza

It’s not drastically different from cooking in the oven, but I don’t think the heat distributes quite the same when grilling and every grill can be a little different. After doing a little research of what others were doing and conducting a test run, I came up with the following:

1) Turn the grill on high and let it really heat up.

2) Roll out you dough leaving it a little thicker than you might for oven pizza., I threw the crust on, but over an area of our grill which from experience I knew didn’t get quite as hot.

3) Throw it on the grill once the grill is nice and hot. Use a pizza paddle board or something equivalent for the transfer it you need too.

4) After a minute or two, flip the crust and add the toppings. At this point you may want to move the pizza to an area of the grill that’s more indirect heat. If you need to, turn one side of the grill to low and postion the pizza on that side.

5) Grill for about 6-8 minutes…checking to make sure crust isn’t burning and turning grill down or repositioning your pizza as necessary. Advanced tip: If your grill gets super hot, remember, you may need to use lower cook times to avoid burning the crust so plan your topping accordingly; Vegetables can be cut extra things so they cook quicker and certain toppings can be pre-cooked if necessary.

6) Pull of your pizza and enjoy (once you can do so without burning your mouth with molten lava cheese).

That’s really it. Every grill and pizza is going to be unique so I think it’s mostly about practicing a little and figuring out what works best for your situation. But don’t be intimidated, it’s not hard.

Oh, the basil and fresh tomatoes!

Looking good!

I love a pizza with vibrant colors!

Dig in!

The easy recipe for Grilled Tomato Basil Pizza: