Food Preparation Techniques

How to Prepare

Pizza (Grilled)

To grill pizza, turn your grill into an outdoor oven. First, build a fire for indirect-heat cooking: For a circular charcoal grill, carefully push the hot coals to the perimeter of the fire bed; for square or rectangular charcoal grills, push the hot coals into half of the bed; and for gas grills, heat the entire grill and then turn off the burners on one side.

You'll be cooking the pizza on the part of the cooking grate that's not directly over the heat, so divide and shape the dough into larger or smaller circles, squares or rectangles to fit that area.

Close the grill's cover (or cover the pizza with a domed wok lid or pot lid or even a large stainless steel bowl), and you've got your outdoor oven.

To prevent the dough from sticking, swab the grill rack with a vegetable oil-soaked cloth or paper towels, safely held with grilling tongs. Also brush the dough on both sides with olive oil. The heat quickly firms up the dough, so it won't droop through the bars. After 2 to 3 minutes (check occasionally to guard against burning), you can easily flip the now-stiff crust.

It's then ready to top with ingredients, which you will have arranged nearby on a table or tray to help you work quickly. Smear lightly with homemade or store-bought pesto or tomato sauce. Add shredded cheeses, dabs of goat cheese, sliced vegetables (which will have been grilled in advance), sliced pepperoni, crumbled cooked sausage, tissue-thin prosciutto. Then, cover again and cook about 5 minutes more, until the cheese has melted.

Slide the finished pizza onto a cutting board, sprinkle with Parmesan and chopped fresh herbs and cut it into wedges or squares with a pizza wheel or large, sharp knife.