Grilled Pizza with Spicy Italian Sausage

It was Kim's turn to select the recipe for the Sunday Slow Supper crowd to play with. Her area was BBQ. She posted a recipe that she first brought to my attention 3 years ago - in fact, it was the recipe that started my love of pizza on the grill.

If you love pizza and you own a grill you really should try this. I remember when I first made pizza ont eh grill - I was at the receiving end of some unusual looks from the dinner guests. Sure, they understood steak, chicken, salmon, and perhaps some veggies - but pizza? That wasn't a grill-worthy item to them.

Silly folk.

You wouldn’t know by reading the instructions how ridiculously easy this is. The instructions are so long I didn’t even want to read them at first. Having made this recipe a few times I can assure you that it looks complex but it breaks down into manageable chunks - chunks that can be shared if there is more than one person around to do the cooking.

The finished pizza has a thin, crispy crust . . . not unlike a pizza made in a commercial wood burning brick oven. The difference is that you can make it yourself without spending $5000 on a brick pizza oven.

Try it once - you won't want to go back to delivery again.

The one draw back of this recipe is that there are far too many toppings. In fact, I think that you could use half of the called for toppings and it would still be good. You could save the rest of the sausages and grilled veggies to make an amazing grilled sausage sandwich. MMMMM

Grilled Pizza with Spicy Italian Sausage

Dough
1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 envelope dry yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups (or more) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
preparation

Combine water and sugar in a food processor. Sprinkle yeast over; let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add oil, then 3 cups flour and salt. Process until dough comes together, about 1 minute.

Turn dough out onto floured work surface. Sprinkle with rosemary. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is sticky, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil large bowl. Add dough; turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic, then towel. Let stand in warm draft-free area until dough doubles, about 1 hour. To test that the dough has risen sufficiently, push two fingers into it. The depressions should remain.

Punch down dough. Knead dough in bowl until smooth, about 2 minutes. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Stretch out each piece on floured surface to 9-inch round. To prevent the dough from sticking as you stretch it, use flour sparingly; too much will result in a tough crust.

Toppings

3/4 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 pound spicy Italian sausages
2 yellow or red bell peppers, cored, lengthwise
1 large red onion, peeled, cut through root end into 1/2-inch thick wedges

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Let vinaigrette stand 15 minutes at room temperature or refrigerate up to 2 hours.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Arrange sausages, peppers and onion on baking sheet. Brush with some of vinaigrette. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill sausages until cooked through and peppers and onion until slightly charred and crisp-tender, turning and basting occasionally, about 12 minutes for sausages and 8 minutes for peppers and onion.

Transfer sausages and vegetables to cutting board. Cut sausages into 1/2-inch pieces and peppers into thin strips.

Final preparation

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups crumbled chilled soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet)
4 plum tomatoes, halved, seeded, chopped
3/4 cup chopped green onion tops Add coals to barbecue if necessary. Place 2 dough rounds on grill. Grill over medium heat until top of dough puffs and underside is crisp, about 3 minutes. Turn rounds over. Grill 1 minute. Transfer to baking sheet with well-grilled side up. This side of the dough becomes the surface that will hold the toppings.

Repeat with the remaining 2 dough rounds. Sprinkle each with 1/4 of mozzarella and Parmesan. Top each with 1/4 of sausage, peppers and onion, then with 1/4 of goat cheese, tomatoes and green onions. Drizzle each with 1 1/2 teaspoons vinaigrette.

Using large metal spatula, return 2 pizzas to grill. Close grill or cover pizzas loosely with foil. Grill until cheeses melt and dough is cooked through and browned, using tongs to rotate pizzas for Transfer to plates. Repeat grilling for remaining 2 pizzas.

Comments

[Lynsey James March]

Yum! I don't think a lot of people have an appreciation yet for what pizza is like on the grill. This is a great sounding recipe!

[Kayte]

This is going to be my summer to try a pizza on the grill. I have seen them all over the place on the blogs and really think it would be a good thing to give a go. Thanks for the inspiration.

[JDeQ]

If they don't that they should just try it Lynsey!

You won't regret it Kayte. I am sure that the guys will be very happy. With all of that amazing bread that you are making this would be a happy addition.

[nancyhol]

Your pizza looks great, Jerry!

This is going to be a great summer recipe for a lot of us!

[Barb Cabot]

Wow it looks so good.

[Levinson & Axelrod]

Excellent pizza. Thanks a lot for sharing your recipe.

[Rob Poulos]

That looks very tasty! Thank you for sharing the recipe! =)

[Mike Geary]

Wow, that looks great! Only I'll have use vegetable oil instead of olive oil because I am allergic to olive oil =(