Grilled Pizza

Mmm... charred crunchy cheesy goodness. My mom started making homemade pizza when I was in high school, and for Cut Bank, it was gourmet. These few pizzas incorporate ideas of hers, as well as some of my own. Enjoy!

Let's start with the crust. If you are lucky enough to live in Missoula, the way to go for pizza dough is Le Petit Outre. I'm not sure if they sell their pizza dough in the actual shop, but I know that they have it at The Good Food Store and Orange Street Food Farm. It's such a great product. I bought four packages today and froze two for later. Follow the instructions on the bag and you'll be good to go. The other option for crust is what my mom used to use - Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix.
The side of the box has instructions for pizza dough. I honestly couldn't tell too much of a difference when I made the two side by side. I believe the Hot Roll Mix yields about two crusts the size of one Le Petit crust. So it's a tad more economical.

Anyway, once you have your dough stretched out to the size you want (mine was about the size of a dinner plate), you can start building your pizza. I made three today: Black bean and chipotle with caramelized onions and asparagus, Pepperoni with fire roasted tomatoes and caramelized onions and then my version of a Roman pizza.

Start by heating up your grill - I set mine to medium heat. You don't want it too high, or the crust will burn before the toppings heat through. You'll want to brush your dough with olive oil and then flip it over so the oil is on the bottom. You don't want your pizza sticking to the grill. If you are using the oven, you can skip this step. Then, simply start adding ingredients. Once you have all of your ingredients on the pizza, transport it out to the grill - I used an upside down cookie sheet, so the pizza would slide right off onto the grill. If you have a pizza peel, even better.

Here are the ingredients I used for each of my pizzas:

Black Bean/Chipotle Pizza
Chopped chipotles in adobo sauce
Canned black beans
Blanched asparagus
Fire-roasted canned tomatoes
Caramelized onions
Cilantro
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese

Pepperoni Pizza
Fire-roasted canned tomatoes (reduced with garlic to a sauce)
Caramelized onions
Pepperoni
Mozzarella cheese

Roman Pizza
Olive Oil
Garlic
Mozzarella Cheese
-After the pizza cooks, top with either prosciutto or cooked bacon, fresh baby arugula, shaved Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, more olive oil, salt and pepper. It's almost like a salad-pizza!

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The pizzas should cook in about 15-20 minutes. Check them often to make sure the crust doesn't burn. If the bottoms start to get too dark, you can turn off the grill, close the lid and wait for the cheese to melt. Or you can move the pizza to a cooler spot on the grill. That is the challenge when cooking over an open flame - controlling your heat! One of my crusts was totally black tonight, and it didn't really matter. It was still tasty!