Grill Pizza tip for ScottE

I was going to talk about Zucchini, but if anything I write here can 'help a brother out', then so much the better.

The dough my wife makes for grilled pizza is slightly different. The recipe from our pizza book (which itself is an adaptation from Alice Waters' book Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone) has you start the sponge with Rye Flour (though whole-wheat flour could be substituted).

2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (though I think she's using SAF Instant Yeast these days...)
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup rye flour

-- combine cover with plastic wrap/damp towel and let rise for 20 minutes. (*we do this in a mixer)

then add:
1/2 cup plus 1Tbsp warm water,
2 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp table salt (1 1/4 for kosher)
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

Mix (on and off) until you've got a smooth and slightly tacky ball.

Put in a coated glass bowl (oil, butter, whatever) cover and rise for two hours. Punch down, rise for another 45 minutes.

I think this makes for two crusts.



After you've stretched out/rolled out your dough as normal, coat one side with olive oil and grill at Medium/medium-high for 3-4 minutes. If you see in the above picture, you're looking for brown grill lines on the dough.

Before flipping, top the other side with olive oil, and flip, then add toppings.




Since your dough has already done a decent amount of cooking, do pre-cook your ingredients. Also some recipes that work well on a 'normal' pizza lose some pizazz on the grill; this regular ol' tomato sauce, grilled peppers and sausage pizza was good, but not great on the grill. You can go minimal on a grilled pizza and really get away with it.

For example, a favorite of ours (also from the Pizza book) was Grilled Sweet Onion slices (walla walla or vidalia), Fresh Thyme, and Farmhouse cheddar grilled pizza. Add a bit of cracked pepper and you've got something that really lets the crust shine, provided it isn't overloaded.