Grilled Pizzas

For the main course Saturday, we made some fantastic grilled pizzas. We needed something to keep the carb count up after the bruschetta appetizers, so pizza was a natural choice. Grilling is a fairly quick way to make pizzas that also gives it some extra flavor over just making them in the oven like normal. The dough can be a little unwieldy, but luckily Maconda's fiance Sacha has hands the size of my head to help reign it in (List of things smaller than Sacha's hands: Footballs, puppies, Peter Dinklage). First up, we have our non-vegetarian Sausage and Mushroom pizza followed by the vegetarian friendly Margherita pizza.

It's safe to say, Sacha would have given Prince Joffrey a much better lesson.

The oregano is a great addition.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza


Dough
Pizza Sauce 
Mozzarella cheese
Grilled Mushrooms
Grilled Onions
Ground Italian Sausage, precooked

1. Make the pizza dough well in advance, as it needs about 3 hours to fully form (see the link for a great flatbread dough recipe that I would recommend adding some oregano too).
2. Prep the pizza sauce (again see the link) or buy premade sauce like tomato basil.
3. Heat up a grill and roll out your pizza dough to the desired thickness. Make sure you coat the surface with flour or cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking and deforming.
4. Place the dough on the grill and cook covered for about 3 minutes or until the bottom starts to brown and puff up.
5. Remove the dough and top the cooked side with sauce, cheese and toppings.
6. Grill covered for another 3 minutes or until the cheese melts and the crust feels crisp.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved a good pizza with mushrooms on it (I think my sister and I are the only two people in the world who crave mushroom and olive pizzas, so we make a wonderful sibling pair.). This pizza was no exception. It's almost like a super tasty burger pizza with the traditional grilled mushroom and onion toppings and a nice sausage to give it a little spice. Kevin's dough was spectacular on its own, but was only made better by basically having a 1:1 ratio of crust to toppings.

Margherita Pizza

Dough

Roma tomatoes, sliced
Basil leaves
Fresh mozzarella rounds

1. Make the pizza dough well in advance, as it needs about 3 hours to fully form (see the link for a great flatbread dough recipe that I would recommend adding some oregano too).
2. Heat up a grill and roll out your pizza dough to the desired thickness. Make sure you coat the surface with flour or cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking and deforming.
3. Place the dough on the grill and cook covered for about 3 minutes or until the bottom starts to brown and puff up.
4. Remove the dough and layer tomato slices, basil and mozzarella on the cooked side.
5. Cook covered for 3 minutes or until the crust crisps up and the mozzarella starts to melt (you don't want it to be overly melted though).

I was a little concerned about this pizza since it didn't have any sauce to keep it from being too dry. The giant mozzarella slices and fresh tomato end up serving the same delicious function, and the potent basil adds some extra pop into each bite. I was also pleasantly surprised because I'm not normally a fan of margherita pizza, but I think the grilling helped win me over.

It was a great meal by the pool that served to help prepare our stomachs and mouths for the incredible dessert that was about to be unleashed: whoopie pies.