Grilled Pizza

Mikey and I are part of a weekly dinner group. Weekly sounds intense, but it has been awesome. I cook one Tuesday a month and get fed the other three. It rocks.  It's fun to catch up, share recipes, and show up at someone's place to eat and not even have a food assignment.

At our last gathering, we made a few grilled pizzas. I've been working on finding my favorite crust recipe since I made my first homemade pizza years ago. Figuring out the perfect way to cook it is another story. Most people say you need a HOT (as in, crank your oven up to 500 degrees and let it sit there for an hour before putting your pizza in). It's summer, folks. No 500 degree ovens here. We tried the grill method and I must say that grilling has moved to the top of the list.

I read my fair share of recipe blogs. Dinner: A Love Story is one of my favorites. She did a post on grilled pizza a week or so ago and I took her six rules to heart. They are probably my new Six Commandments of Pizza Grilling.

For the crust this time, we used a recipe (scroll to the bottom of her post) sans olive oil that another blogger said grilled up really nicely. Truly the easiest crust ever (and it tastes great too).

As far as toppings go we had three varieties:

BBQ Chicken pizza.  Grill style.

 The first was a BBQ Chicken. Has anyone else tried Williams Sonoma's BBQ Sauces? They're awesome. We topped it with mozzarella, grilled chicken, and red onions. Grill as per the two posts above. You can't go wrong.

Our second pizza was a veggie with zucchini, green and orange peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Saute your veggies first and I sprinkled them with Italian Seasoning. Yum.

Gorgonzola, apple, walnut, caramelized onions, balsamic . . .

The third was my favorite. It was of the sauceless variety topped with Gorgonzola cheese, thinly sliced apples, chopped walnuts, and caramelized onions. After it comes off the grill, top it with a pile of arugula, drizzle the whole thing with balsamic vinegar and top with freshly cracked pepper.

. . . topped with arugula and sprinkle of fresh pepper.

*photos courtesy of Ms. Hanna Colleen