Grilled Pizza with Tomatoes and Bacon

Grilling pizza produces a deliciously smoky effect, similar to that of pizza baked in a wood-burning oven. Once you’ve mastered the basic technique, feel free to improvise your own adventurous topping combinations.

If you don't feel like making your own dough you can use store bought pizza dough. We have done this with great success.

We have made a wonderful pizza on the grill with fresh figs, proscuitto, gorgonzola cheese, and arugula. YUM

For the dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water (105° to 115°F)
1 package (2 1/2 tsp.) active dry yeast
About 3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. olive oil
Cornmeal for dusting

For the pizza:

3/4 lb. low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese, coarsely shredded
4 thick-cut bacon slices, about 6 oz. total, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces and cooked until crisp
16 cherry tomatoes, halved
12 large fresh basil leaves, torn into 1-inch pieces


To make the dough, in a large bowl, whisk together the water and yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup of the flour and the salt. Stir in enough flour, about 2 cups, to form a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and knead, adding more flour as needed, until smooth and satiny, about 5 minutes. Put 1 Tbs. oil in each of 2 bowls. Cut the dough in half, shape each into a ball and put 1 ball in each bowl. Turn the dough to coat with oil and cover each bowl with a kitchen towel. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Prepare a charcoal or gas grill for indirect grilling over high heat. Oil the grill rack.

Brush a work surface with the remaining 1 Tbs. oil. Transfer 1 dough ball to the oiled surface and pat and stretch the dough into a round about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a baker’s peel that has been lightly dusted with cornmeal.

Slide the pizza off the peel onto the grill rack away from the fire of a charcoal grill or away from the heat elements of a gas grill. Cook until the bottom of the crust is lightly marked by the grill but not crisp, 4 to 6 minutes. Using 2 spatulas, turn the crust grilled-side up. Working quickly, sprinkle half of the cheese over the crust. Scatter half of the bacon and half of the tomatoes over the cheese, then sprinkle half of the basil evenly over the top. Cook, rotating once or twice, until the cheese is melted and the crust is crisp and brown at the edges, 8 to 10 minutes more.

Transfer the pizza to a cutting board, cut into wedges or squares, and serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make a second pizza. Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer, 4 to 6 as a main course.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma, Essentials of Grilling, by Denis Kelly, Melanie Barnard, Barbara Grunes & Michael McLaughlin (Oxmoor House, 2003).

Comments

[Kim]

Jerry, we do a bbq pizza recipe we got from Bon Appetit 10 years ago (made them last weekend). We do the dough in the food processor and there is rosemary in the crust - atop, things like grilled peppers and onions, sausage, tomatoes, scallions, goat cheese, mozarella cheese and more. They're wonderul. If you're interested, I'll post the link.

[Jerry]

Kim - they sounds amazing. I'd appreciate the recipe. I haven't tried making my own pizza dough (a yeast phobia) so this may be just the trick!

Thanks,

Jerry

[Kim]

Hmmm...not sure if HTML works in comments but let's give it a try. We use hot turkey Italian sausage instead of the pork sausage, and though it says it serves 4, we made six crusts out of the dough last time, which worked well. It's a lot of work but once you get the hang of it, it goes easily.

Okay - it stripped the HTML. I'm going to list it as my URL, so you should be able to click my name to get to the recipe. :)

[Jerry]

Thanks Kim - that looks amazing. Unfortunately our grill is out of service right now (ARGH and it is HOT - clearly we shall be eating out until it is fixed!) but when it is back in service we'll be trying this one.