If You Aren't Grilling Your Pizza, You're Doing It Wrong

Other than "I love you," the three words that give us the most stomach-butterflies are "grill your pizza." We're not exaggerating. To quote the great Bill Murray Tweet, "Unless you are a pizza, the answer is yes, I can live without you." We take your wisdom, Bill Murray, and raise you a "grilled." Just ask The Pioneer Woman, who will assure you that by grilling pizza, you can reproduce the "brick-oven crispy crust" that your daydreams are made of.  

It's all about the intensity of the heat that a grill can provide. "Grills can reach way higher temperatures than your average oven, making it a great tool for homemade pizzas," chef Michael Pirolo assured Food & Wine. Pizza, as it turns out, thrives off of blistering heat. And when you use a grill to make pizza in just minutes, your pizza transforms from a state of "that looks good" into magnificence: crispy, charred, smokey, cheesy goodness. 

You don't have to be a Bobby Flay or a Giada De Laurentiis to grill pizza. You should, however, follow some ground rules.  First, heat your grill for about 20 minutes so that it gets really, really hot. Roughly 500 degrees is a good rule of thumb, but, says The New York Times, if you hold your hand six inches over the grill and feel discomfort a few seconds later, your grill is pizza-primed.

While you can pre-cook your pizza dough directly on a hot grill, using a pizza stone or a metal sheet pan distributes the grill's heat better. Before adding toppings (these should be pre-cooked), do two things. First, flash-cook your pizza dough to make it firmer. Second, chef Daniela Moreira told Food & Wine, brush the dough with a small amount of high-quality olive oil. As for the sauce, The New York Times recommends adding a minimal amount to prevent sogginess. Now, add your toppings and (before grilling) water down the grill to prevent the dough from cooking too quickly. 

It's time to grill your pizza! How long? The New York Times recommends three to four minutes. If you close the grill's lid, you'll get a pizza closer to oven-baked perfection. If you don't, you'll end up with something more similar to a flatbread. Your pizza's done, according to what Chef David Glenn told Food & Wine when the crust is "dark and golden with black blisters." Bon Appetit!