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Arts & Entertainment

Grilled Pizza: A Tasty Treat That Doesn't Need An Oven

Make home-made pizza without ever turning on the oven.

It is no secret why most everybody loves pizza.

It is the ultimate “fast food” when the family is hungry and nobody wants to go out or cook. Within an hour of making a phone call, the doorbell rings and dinner arrives.

I typically prefer homemade pizza and love to make my own crust. However, previously,  has some delicious frozen balls of dough just waiting for the busy home chef to top and make pizza special.

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Grilled pizza seems to be a top trend for foodies these days, but I admit, the thought of tossing raw dough on the grill seemed scary to me. I decided to give it a try after attending a home cookware show several weeks ago. The consultant made a wonderful pizza on the grill, demonstrating several of her tools.

I don’t have any specialty pizza tools for the grill, so I decided to try something to make the process easier. Rather than making one large pizza on the grill, I opted for personal-sized pizzas. That made the process easier to put the raw dough on the grill and flip it as necessary.

The sky is the limit when topping grilled pizza, but the process is the same. Place the oiled dough on a grill preheated to medium. Wait about eight minutes, flip the dough and top it. Close the lid and grill another few minutes.

The following recipe was inspired by my favorite sandwich from . It combines sun dried tomato pesto, fresh mozzarella and basil. I picked up the sun dried tomato pesto from , fresh mozzarella from Valenti’s and basil that is growing out of control in my garden. Fresh basil is currently available at the farmer’s market in O’Fallon or any number of farm stands or grocery stores.

Regardless of the toppings you use, the basic grilled pizza dough is the perfect canvas. Other great combinations include:

  • sun dried tomato pesto, black olives, feta cheese and oregano
  • basic pizza sauce, mozzarella and basil
  • basil pesto, mozzarella and cooked, cubed chicken breast
  • alfredo sauce and chopped, cooked bacon
  • basil pesto, halved grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella

Grilled Pizza              

Makes 4 six-inch pizzas

  • 1 Valenti’s pizza dough, thawed
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons cornmeal (optional)
  • 4 tablespoons sun dried tomato pesto
  • 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into ½” cubes
  • 1 cup fresh chopped basil leaves
  • Fresh ground pepper

Preheat the grill to medium high for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, divide the dough into five equal pieces. Sprinkle the cornmeal on your work surface and roll each dough piece into 6” rounds.

Brush both sides of the dough rounds with olive oil.

Lay the dough rounds on the grill. Close the lid and grill for about six to eight minutes, checking frequently since cooking times vary with each grill. The dough is ready to flip when it appears dry on the top and the bottom has a nice golden color and some light grill marks.

Flip the dough, then working quickly, spread each dough round with one tablespoon sun dried pesto. Distribute the cheese evenly over each pizza. Close the lid and grill. Grill the pizza until the cheese has melted and the bottom of the crust has a golden brown color with some charred grill marks, about six minutes.

Turn off the grill and sprinkle each pizza with fresh ground pepper to taste and the fresh basil. Close the grill lid for about one minute to give the basil time to “stick” to the melted cheese.

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