Pizza on the Grill, Simple Tweaks That Make a Difference

Hot.  Devil hot.  Hell hot.  Hotlanta.  Hot, hot, hot.  The cicada's electric song gives the heat its voice, enveloping the mind in waves of sound that only intensifies the heavy blanket of ninety-degree weather.  We light the grill, as if hypnotized, controlled by some wild and carnal need to add to this fiery intensity.  It is fitting that we begin our journey into grilling pizza on a day that feels like what it must feel like inside a wood-fired oven.

Grilling pizza is addictive:  it's fun, it's flavorful, it's easy.  The first thing to understand about grilling pizza is the heat.  Your grill can get very hot, which is a good thing because pizza cooks best at high temperatures, but the heat can scorch the bottom of the pie before the top of the pie cooks through.  There are things to do to regulate the heat.  First, I think a good pizza stone is in order.  There are lots on the market.  We use an All Clad stone that we have owned for years; the important thing is that the stone is thick and able to withstand high temperatures; some stones can crack due to the heat, so it's important to use a good stone.  When we cooked the pizza on the stone only, it scorched the bottom of the pizza very quickly, and the toppings were nowhere near done. 

To create space between the pie and the heat, we used a flower pot base which helped enormously.  The final thing we did to help regulate the heat was to wrap the inside of the grill lid in aluminum foil, and we added a smaller grill stone to the lid by attaching it with copper wire.  The smaller stone was donated by a neighbor -- I am unsure of the brand, but it is thinner than our All Clad.  It serves its purpose well, which is to bring heat above the pie as well as below.  Once we modified the grill in this way, we were able to cook pies that came out perfectly each time. 

It takes roughly 3-4 minutes to cook a pizza fully on the grill.  Grilling enhances the flavor of the dough, which is why many of the pizzas we have grilled so far haven't been traditional ones with red sauce.  Grilling pizza opens the imagination, and the pizza dough becomes the muse.  I will do many posts about the various types of pizzas we have made on the grill.  We hope to inspire you through pizza.