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Traditional Grilled Margherita Pizza

This grilled margherita pizza is perfect in its simplicity...less of a standalone recipe than the sum of a few delicious components.  It takes my favorite pizza dough (or use your own, or storebought), a no-cook 2-minute tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and a grilling technique.
Course: Main Dishes
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 1 -3 pizzas

Ingredients

  • See the post for dough & sauce recipe links
  • My go-to pizza dough recipe
  • My simple no-cook tomato sauce for margherita pizza
  • 1 package of buffalo mozzarella or "pearls" (Belgioiso makes these)
  • Freshly-grated parmesan cheese
  • Fresh basil for garnish

Instructions

  • First, you make your dough (if you're going that route).  The one I use is super easy and super delicious.  Or you can definitely pick up some from the store.
  • Then make the simple no-cook tomato sauce by blitzing some high-quality canned tomatoes (I love San Marzano) and a few other ingredients. 
  • So I have like 5 different methods for awesome grilled pizza, but here is my current favorite. Lay a piece of parchment paper on a cutting board or platter.  Roll or stretch your dough out quite thin, and into a circle...or quite frankly whatever the hell shape it wants to be.  South America is a(n accidental) favorite of mine.  
  • Go ahead and top your pizza.  A *thin* layer of the tomato sauce, then some nicely-spaced torn fresh mozzarella or just the little pearls.  You definitely want to use the nice stuff and not regular shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle some fresh-grated parmesan on there too.
  • Then use scissors to cut around the parchment very close to the dough.  I had issues with all the excess parchment ending up as black burnt bits in my pizza---this method eliminates that problem.
  • Preheat your grill to medium, probably around 500 degrees.  When it's hot, gently slide the pizza and parchment paper onto the grates. 
  • Close the lid and let cook for 2-3 minutes.  Then (this will depend on your grill, so you may need to play around a bit) you can use tongs to slide the parchment paper out and discard it.
  • For me, I've found I need to then either turn the heat directly under the pizza down significantly, or off (and keep the other burners on for more indirect heat).  On my old grill I could keep the burners as-is, so it will depend on how intense your grill is (my new Weber's pretty intense).
  • You'll want to keep a very close eye on the bottom, you don't want to burn it.  Once your cheese is melted and the dough seems cooked through and crisp, use tongs, a pizza peel, or a large spatula to slide it off the grill and onto a large platter or cutting board.
  • Let it sit for five or so minutes, then top with fresh basil.  Cut and serve immediately.

Notes

  • An assembly line-type approach can work here if you're making more than one pizza
  • The sauce recipe makes SO much, so try and think of other ways to use it
  • My pizza dough recipe makes about 3 medium pizzas (maybe 4 people?)