Grilled pizza comes closer to the brick oven pizza you get in Naples than anything you can do indoors, and it beats the snot out of the stuff that arrives steamed and soggy in the cardboard box.
The trick is to get the dough and toppings cooked properly without incinerating the crust or leaving it uncooked.
Some recipes call for you to pre-bake the crust on on the top side, then flip it and put the toppings on the pre-baked side, but there is no need for this if you do things properly.
The solution is to use a thin metal pizza pan or the ZaGrill Pizza Cooker (shown with the Caramelized Onion Pizza, below), a clever device that holds the dough above the grates and above a metal heat absorbing and radiating plate. You can also use a cookie pan or thin baking sheet. I do not recommend a pizza stone on a grill. I have cracked one and heard other cooks say they have done the same. With a ZaGrill I cook over direct heat, but without it, I use a 2-zone grill and cook over the indirect side.
Official Neopolitan Pizza
According to Chef Roberto Caporuscio of Keste in Greenwich Village in NYC, "The word pizza, as it is currently spelled, was used to describe both sweet and salty pies in the Middle Ages, but took the form that we are now familiar with in pre-Renaissance Naples, a large city in central Italy. Poor peasants used their limited ingredients -flour and water, creating a bread dough, stretched and baked to make a seasoned, flat bread."
Naples is considered the go to for great pizza, where it has been made pretty much the same way for more than a century. There's a marble counter for keeping the dough cool as it is worked into the typical thin crust, and a brick wood burning oven whose bottom, often made of volcanic rock, is scorching hot, with a low ceiling that allows the flames from the logs to roll over the top of the pie which can be fully cooked in as few as 3 minutes.
There's even an Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani (the Association of Neapolitan Pizza sometimes called the "Pizza Police") which certifies pizzerias as "authentic" with guidelines for ingredients and cooking. Keste (which means "This is it") is the official home of the Associazione, which now has at least a dozen members in NYC alone.
The Associazione demands that the dough be made only with flour, yeast, salt, and water. Unlike many other pizza doughs, there is no olive oil in the blend, so it is a very light, soft dough. It must be kneaded by hand or mixers which do not cause the dough to overheat, and the dough must be punched down and shaped by hand. Also, only wood-burning, bell-shaped brick ovens are permitted. The pizza must be cooked on the surface of the oven and not in any pan or container, with oven temperatures reaching at least 750-800F minimum.
An important tip for storebought pizza
Never cut a pizza until the last possible minute so the juices don't run down the cracks and make the crust soggy. When I order pizza for carryout, I tell them not to cut it. I put a pizza stone in my oven and heat it to about 225F when it gets here. That's hot enough to keep it warm, but not so hot as to dry it out. I take the pie out of the box, put it in the oven on the stone. This keeps the bottom crisp. I cut it after I pour the wine and serve the salad.
Fresh tomatoes on pizza
One way to elevate your pies over the storebought is to use fresh tomatoes, sometimes in place of sauce.
The problem is that tomatoes are so full of water that they can make the dough soggy. The way to prevent this is to make sure the top of the dough gets a nice coat of olive oil, and then remove the seeds and jelly from the tomatoes. Do this by slicing off 1/4" or more of the stem end so that the knife reveals the compartments in which the jelly lives. Then stand over the trash can and with the cut end facing down, gently squeeze the guts out of the tomato. You can then slice the tomato or chop it by quartering it and then cutting the quarters into chunks.
Another technique is to use oven dried or smoked tomatoes. These are sliced in hald and roasted in the oven or smoker until they are about 1/4 their original size. Most of the liquid has evaporated and the flavor is concentrated, almost raiseny. The first time you taste smoke dried fresh tomatoes on a pizza you will weep.
My Italian-American wife is the doughmaster and she makes it better than any restaurant in Chicago. Perhaps you've heard of Chicago pizza. She makes her dough from scratch, and I'll bring her recipe to you soon. Meanwhile you can buy pretty good dough frozen in the grocery. Frozen dough is a lot better than the pre-cooked pizza dough like Boboli. To prepare it, just follow the instructions on the package. Thin crust is easier to cook on the grill. It doesn't have to be perfectly round, and it can even be rectangular if that fits your grill easier. Be aware that it will shrink about 2".
When cooking in a well insulated cooker like a Weber Kettle, preheat to about 400-450F. If you are using a grill that leaks a lot like most gas grills, the heat will not cook the top as well, so shoot for 300-350F. You may need to experiment to tune your instrument. Always cook pizza with the cover down and, to amp up the flavor, toss on a few wood chips or dried herbs before you put the pizza in for nice smokiness. Depending on your cooking temp and the thickness of the crust, you will be ready to eat in as little as 20 minutes. It is done when the crust and cheese start to brown on top and when the crust is golden on the bottom. Until you see how fast your grill and dough cook, pour a beer and stick close to the grill to keep an eye on things. Check the bottom!
Here are three of my faves. The Neopolitan Capicola Pizza is very much like a pizza in Naples, Italy, the Grilled Pizza Margherita is another favorite from Naples, and the Provençal Caramelized Onion Pizza is similar to the pizza you will find in South France.
There is nothing so personal as pizza preferences, so feel free to riff on my recipes. For grilled pizza I find it best to go easy on the ingredients so everything cooks properly.
Legend has it that this simple but elegant pie was first made by a Neopolitan baker named Esposito in 1889 in Naples to commemorate the visit of Italy's Queen Margarita to Naples. He decorated it with the red, green, and white colors of the Italian flag. This one depends heavily on fresh basil and it just cannot be made properly with dried basil, so don't try.
Ingredients
6 ounces pizza dough
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 meathy tomatoes like Romas, seeded and chopped
10 fresh basil leaves, stems cut off close to the leaf
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
2 pinches kosher salt
several grinds fresh ground black pepper
Do this
1) Preheat the grill.
2) Coat the pan with oil. Roll out the dough or spread it with your hands, and don't worry if it is not perfectly round. Place it in the pan. Mix the garlic with the oil and coat the top with olive oil, and distribute the garlic more or less evenly. Lay the tomatoes on the oil, then the fresh whole basil leaves, then the cheese, then the salt and pepper.
Capicola is a traditional cured and lightly smoked pork product from Naples, related to bacon, and some good examples are made in the US and Canada. It is widely available on deli counters at groceries. It is usually a large log, about 3" in diameter, dusted with spicy pepper on the outside, and it is sliced thin. Don't worry about the pepper, it is hardly noticeable when the meat is sliced thin.
Ingredients
6 ounces pizza dough
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 meaty tomatoes, like Romas, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons oregano, dried
6 large leaves of fresh basil
1 medium onion, sliced thin
10 kalamata olives, pitted and split in half
1/2 sweet red pepper, seeded, cored, sliced thin
1/4 pound capicola, chopped or torn into 3/4" chunks
2 pinches coarse salt and several few twists of the pepper mill
1/2 cup grated cheese mix*
* About the cheese mix. We almost always use more than one cheese, and we go light on the cheese. We rarely use regular grocery mozzarella because it is so bland. I think it's just an electron away from rubber. In Naples the cheese of choice is water buffalo mozzarella. If I can't find it, any fresh mozzarella or chevre can be found on our pizzas, just dropped on top as chunks. Provalone and Parmegiano-Reggiano are others.
About the tomatoes. The reason we remove the seeds and jelly is because they are very watery and they can make the crust soggy.
Options are unlimited. Slices of jalapeño are nice, as are capers, sun dried tomatoes, hot red pepper flakes, and, of course, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and anchovies.
Do this
1) Preheat the grill.
2) Coat the pan with oil. Roll out the dough or spread it with your hands, and don't worry if it is not perfectly round. Place it in the pan, and with a pastry brush or spray bottle, lightly coat the top with olive oil. Now the sauce goes on. Take it all the way to the edge because it will give great color as it cooks. Then the herbs, onion, olives, red pepper, capicola, salt and pepper, and then the cheese.
3) Bake, cut, and serve.
Provençal Caramelized Onion Pizza Recipe
Provence, the region of southern france that meets the Mediterranean, also makes notable pizza. Here's a typical one:
Makes. 1 large pizza Preparation time. 15 minutes (not counting the time needed to make the caramelized onions) Cooking time. 20 minutes
Ingredients
6 ounces pizza dough
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 niçoise or kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
6 canned anchovie filets, rinsed, patted dry, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, or oregano
1 cup caramelized onions
2 pinches coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Optional. Add 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper.
Do this
1) Preheat the grill.
2) Coat the pan with oil. Roll out the dough or spread it with your hands, and don't worry if it is not perfectly round. Place it in the pan, and with a pastry brush or spray bottle, lightly coat the top with olive oil. Sprinkle the herbs on the dough first. This is important so the moist onions keep them from burning. Then add the olives, anchovies, caramelized onions, salt and pepper.
3) Bake, cut, and serve.
This page was revised 9/22/2009
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Provençal Caramelized Onion Pizza Recipe
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