4th Food Fare: Creative Crowd-Pleasing BBQ’d Pizzas

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BBQ’d Pizza you ask? Yes, you don’t need a wood burning oven or even a pizza stone to successfully make pizzas at home. And it’s even easier if you have a favorite pizza joint nearby that will sell you uncooked dough and even some toppings. This is so much more interesting for a great BBQ party than hot dogs and hamburgers and gets your guests involved so you don’t have to be sweating in front of the grill all night.

Easy Grilled Pizzas

Serves 8 (individual size)

1 large pizza dough ball
1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
Olive oil for brushing

Toppings: Get creative — putting multiple bowls of topping options out allows your guests to choose their favs and maybe even get a little competitive to build the best pizza combo.

Peppers
Olives
Chopped fresh tomatoes
Onions (raw or grilled)
Grilled Eggplant and zucchini
Mushrooms (grilled and sliced portobellos are great)
Sweet or spicy grilled italian sausage and pepperoni (sliced)
Different cheeses (feta, brie, halloumi)
Fresh greens: basil, rosemary, spinach

1. Turn grill on to medium heat
2. Cut dough into 8 individual balls and let rest on a tray
3. Two people can start simultaneously — have two guests start gently stretching the dough in their hands, turning and pulling to form the dough into a thin round circle, being careful not to pull a hole in the dough.
4. Once the grill is hot and the dough has been stretched, lay them on a cutting board or tray and brush one side with olive oil. Pick the dough back up and flop directly on the grill, olive oil side down, and close the lid.
5. After about 1-2 mins or until you see light grill marks on the under side, brush the top with olive oil and flip with tongs.
6. Work quickly to add all toppings from sauce to cheese and anything else. Close the grill lid and wait ~1-2 mins.
7. Check to make sure the cheese is melted and the bottom is a nicely browned. If the bottom starts to get too dark before the cheese is fully melted you can move the pizza to a top rack and let the indirect heat do the rest of the work without burning the dough.
8. Enjoy and repeat!

Tip: If you think your guests will want more than one individual pizza, buy extra dough and cheese to accommodate appetites and the number of people.  You can always make other things with leftover dough.

Extra Dough:

• Rosemary-Sea Salt Flatbread — After brushing the second side with olive oil, sprinkle generously with coarse gray sea salt and fresh rosemary.
• Delicious Breakfast Pizza — Same steps as original pizza, but once you flip the dough, immediately move it to the top rack and crack the egg directly on the dough. This will take approximately 10 minutes for the egg to fully cook, so the bottom will burn if you leave it on the bottom. The egg will be done when you poke with a fork or knife and the white is firm.

Serve With A Refreshing Cocktail and Spinach Salad:
Pink Fizzy Lemonade Cocktails Beat the Heat
Spinach, Strawberry & Halloumi Salad

Breakfast PIzza