As anyone that knows us knows, we like to make pizza … a lot … mostly as a result of my parents’ wood-fired pizza oven in Raleigh.  While we miss that dearly, we’ve found that a very hot oven or, even better, a grill make decent substitutes.  I’ve posted a bunch on pizza in the past, but I decided it might be time to put everything together in one place.  I’m probably the only one that has this problem, but when I look back and try to find a combination of toppings I’ve tried before, I end up having to sift through a bunch of posts to find out which one it is.  In the future, I’ll try to keep this up-to-date so all our favorite pizza dough recipes and topping ideas are synthesized in one place.  Enjoy!  And I’d love to get more ideas in the comments!

Grilled Pizza

We use the recipe from Mugnaini pizza dough, which you can get from that link, enough for 6-8 pizzas. I’ve got the ingredients list below, but I’ll let you read her instructions, and I’ll pick up on what I did after making the dough.

Mom thinks that having nice flour really makes a difference in how easy the dough is to work with. She recommends Giusto’s High Performance Pizza Flour, which you can buy online (another trick she learned from Mugnaini cooking school — do you see a trend here? I promise they aren’t paying me anything!). But it also works fine with regular or bread flour.

4 c flour
1 t salt
1 1/2 c warm water
2 t yeast dissolved in 1/4 c warm water

Making the dough: Follow the instructions for making the dough you can find here, all the way through. You will then end up with 6 or 8 balls of dough. (Basically you are going to mix everything together and knead, let it rise for 2.5-3 hours, cut it into balls, and let it rest another 20 minutes. I find I usually have to knead it a bit longer than she says to make sure it’s smooth and elastic, which makes it easier to work with, and to incorporate a bit more flour.)

Par-baking: If I’m going to grill the pizzas, or if I’m making pizza for a big crowd, I then par-bake the dough. It’s very convenient since making crusts is the most time consuming part, and this way it can be done ahead and the crusts can be stacked on top of each other to save space.

To start, turn the oven on as high as it will go (for me that’s 525) and place a pizza stone in the oven.

Roll or stretch out the crusts. (I’m hoping to persuade my mom to do a more detailed instructional post with me on this one. Throwing around pizza dough like the professionals is much harder than it looks, and she’s much better at it than I am! You can leave her comments here to urge her to participate in this effort. )

Once the oven is hot, slide the rolled/stretched out dough onto the pizza stone. Let it bake just a couple minutes, flip it, bake it a couple minutes more, and pull it out of the oven. The idea here is to only barely bake the dough, making it a lot easier to work with when you put it on the grill. This is also nice for entertaining because you can take care of all the messy dough-making before people come over. The crusts can even be frozen for a few weeks after they are par-baked as well.

Grilling: To grill the pizza, first start a medium-high to high fire in the grill (we used charcoal, which I think adds to the flavor). Top the par-baked crusts however you like. Slip the crust directly onto the grill rack and cover. Grill about 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is done but not burned on the bottom. (Keep an eye on them. They may cook more quickly/slowly depending on your fire, and honestly, we didn’t time it, so we’re going on our memory from a few weeks ago here.)

Some of our favorite toppings:

Creme Fraiche and Smoked Salmon
(or as my uncle David nicknamed it, “The Stinky Frenchman”)
adapted from Mugnaini
Top pizza with creme fraiche, lemon zest, and dill; bake. As soon as it comes out of the oven, top with smoked salmon, cut into strips.

Wilted Spinach, Fontina, and Truffle Oil
adapted from Mugnaini
Top pizza with barely wilted spinach and fontina. After baking, drizzle with truffle oil.

Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion
adapted from Mugnaini
Caramelize onions by slicing them and cooking them over pretty low heat until they turn golden and sweet. Top pizza with chopped thyme, caramelized onions, and maytag blue cheese.

Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper
adapted from Myth, San Francisco
I know honey sounds kind of strange to put on a pizza, but don’t be too sparing. It nicely cuts the saltiness of the prosciutto and gorgonzola.
Make a sauce by roasting red pepper and then pureeing it. You can mix this with a bit of creme fraiche for a creamier texture. (We are not on agreement over which was more like the one at Myth.) Top this with prosciutto, crumbled gorgonzola, chopped chives, parmesan cheese, and a generous drizzle of honey.

Potato Pizza
Chop some fresh herbs (e.g. basil, parsley, oregano, etc.) and garlic together. Add salt and pepper to the herb/garlic mixture and make into a paste. Let sit for at least a half hour or so if possible to let the flavors meld. Spread the crust with crème fraîche. Top with the potatoes in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the herbs and a bit of extra salt. (Remember how much salt potatoes need and don’t be too cautious!) Bake a few minutes in as hot an oven as possible, until lightly browned.

White Pizza
Combine 1 T chopped fresh basil, 1 T dried oregano, 6 minced cloves of garlic, and 1/2 t ground black pepper. (This make enough for more than one pizza.) Spread dough with olive oil then herbs. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced fontina cheese, and grated parmesan cheese. We often add chopped prosciutto and/or pine nut, too. Possibly my favorite kind of pizza!

Pesto Chicken
Top with pesto sauce, grilled chicken, feta cheese, pine nuts, and parmesan. Bacon is also a good addition.

The original pizza posts:
Daring Bakers: Pizza
Grilled Pizza … and an apology
Wood Fired Appetizer Pizzas

1 package Trader Joe’s sweet potato fries (these aren’t just frozen sweet potatoes, since they are already coated in some kind of oil or something, and maybe pre-fried)
1/2 t cinnamon, or to taste
1/2 t smoked paprika, or to taste
1/2 t salt, or to taste
1 T olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss (still frozen) fries with cinnamon, paprika, salt, and olive oil. Bake until crispy and browned, about 8-10 minutes. I like to eat them with barbecue sauce.

Now that summer is in full swing, we’ve been grilling at least a couple times a week.  I love how little preparation this often requires, and even more how little cleanup there is afterwards!  We have a charcoal grill, which does mean it takes a bit longer to “preheat” than when I cook inside.  Even if I wanted to spend the money though, I wouldn’t give up my charcoal grill for a gas one — I love the flavor that the charcoal smoke gives to the food, and it’s just never the same on a gas grill.  Yes, I know that smokiness is probably giving me cancer, but really, what doesn’t?  And it sure does taste good!

These grilled vegetables are a great easy side for some kind of grilled meat.  In this case we served them with the sausage left over from the sausage ravioli we made a couple weeks ago.  (No, they didn’t sit in our fridge two weeks before we ate them.  I’m just a little behind on posting…)  They take less than five minutes of preparation (other than the grilling), and what can taste more like summer than zucchini and squash, eaten al fresco?

Grilled Summer Vegetables

I used a couple zucchini, a pattypan squash, and an onion, but really any vegetable that’s reasonably sturdy would work great. Other ideas include asparagus, eggplant, or bell peppers. Let us know what other vegetables you like on the grill in the comments!

2 pounds or so of vegetables such as zucchini, squash, and onions
olive oil
1 lemon
salt and pepper
1/4 c shaved Parmigiano
handful of basil leaves

Cut vegetables into about 1/4″ thick slices. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the lemon over them, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let sit while the grill preheats. Cut the basil leaves crosswise into thin strips (“chiffonade”).

Grill (preferably with charcoal!) over medium high heat, covered, about 6 minutes on a side. After you’ve flipped them and they’re a couple minutes from being done, sprinkle with Parmigiano and continue to grill until the cheese is melted and golden.

Sprinkle with basil after pulling them off the grill. Garnish with lemon wedges, if desired.