Prime Weekend for Grilling

We decided that the whole weekend would be an adventure in grilling. We kicked off the weekend by making homemade pizza for lunch. We started with the pizza dough, making a double batch, some was grilled and some was baked in the oven for a comparison taste testing.

While the pizza dough was rising, the sauce was started by cooking onions in olive oil until softened before adding garlic and oregano. A large can of tomatoes was added, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and simmered for 40 to 45 minutes until thickened.

Red onions were thickly sliced, drizzled with olive oil and grilled until tender.

After the rising of the dough, it was divided in 4 pieces and rolled out on oiled parchment paper. The top was oiled before being put on the grill and then the parchment paper was peeled off. Once done, the pizza dough was flipped over to brown on the other side. The grilled crusts were brought in to be topped with the sauce, the grilled onions, some slice nicoise olives, and fresh mozzarella cheese broken into chunks. These went back on the grill for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

These grilled pizzas were fabulous.

With the other half of the dough, we divided it in half and rolled it out to make a bigger pizza. It was topped with some of the homemade sauce, sliced pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, and shredded Parmesan before going into a 400 degree oven. I rolled out the dough on the underside of a pizza pan, thinking I would be able to slide it on to the pizza stone I had heated in the oven. I quickly realized the pizza was not going to slide off the pan onto the stone, so I placed the whole thing in the oven. It turned out that the pizza crust really did not cook on the bottom and was somewhat disappointing. I will definitely invest in a pizza peel next time I make homemade pizza.