Grilled Pizza

Evidently, grilling pizza is the "new thing" in the culinary world, and household kitchens coming to a home near you.

Who knew?!

While in Charleston last week, my mom and her neighbor, who are both excellent cooks and real foodies, kept talking about grilling pizza and how good it was and how easy it was.

Well, I decided I wanted to cook dinner for "the house" and invited Anna and Kevin to come too, so I could try my hand at grilling pizza.

So here's how it went down:

1. I planned out the menu - two pizzas: one would be a caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil), and the other would be a grilled veggie with a pesto sauce (both of which I found on Pinterest)

2. Went shopping at Trader Joes - LOVE Joe! (Thanks Laurie!) and got all that I needed, including two bags of pre-made pizza dough.

3. Planned for dinner to be ready at 6:30, so I started prepping at 5:00. An hour and a half early is good for me, usually I'm a last minute chef, which doesn't usually turn out too good. I cut up the tomatoes and mozzarella for the caprese and set them aside.

4. Started by grilling peppers, zucchini, and summer squash on the grill - in the rain.

5. Made a homemade pesto with fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice and zest, and EVOO

6. Rolled out the pizza dough in a little corn meal on the counter, and formed two nice...uh, shapes - not really circles, not really rectangles, not really anything. 

7. Grill the dough first, one side at a time. Well, in my lack of grill knowledge, I put one pizza on the bottom rack and one pizza on the top rack. The one on the bottom did great! The one of the top, not so much. Paul and his brother tried to save it for me, but it was just a mess. It wouldn't cook - obviously now I know that the top rack is used for warming, not actually grilling. They did the best they could, and about half of the dough survived. After grilling both sides, take it off and assemble with all the toppings. 
For the caprese - dough, mozzarella, tomato, basil. 
For the veggie - dough, pesto, mozzarella, grilled yellow and red pepper, grilled zucchini and summer squash, and sauteed mushrooms (in pan on stove in butter and Marsala cooking wine).

8. Due to grill issues, dinner was finally serve at 7:30. An hour late - so me.

9. Add some grilled pineapple and a salad for a well rounded plate.

Honestly, despite the setbacks and the time delays, the pizzas turned out good. I think the veggie-pesto one was amazing. Like always, this was a learning experience for me, and my family was so sweet to wait patiently and endure through with me. Now that I know what I'm doing, and could better plan and prepare, I think next time it would go much smoother. And, yes, there will be a next time!

Like me family says, "it's a Bob Ross kinda thing - you can add what you want" - so who knows what the next pizza will be!

God Bless