Simple and Easy Pizza on the Grill

I admit to being a little more than intimidated by this Traeger wood pellet grill initially.  I knew NOTHING about cooking on one and had never even tasted something grilled on one.  Yet I trusted my new neighbor and bought a small one.  Talk about a leap of faith, but it was one of the best leaps I have taken - and, I might add, I landed safely!

I had no idea that a pellet grill could actually take the place of an oven - what a concept.  If you don't know or aren't familiar and are living in the dark ages like I was (!),  let me tell you. This amazing creation can be your new best friend!  I plan to spend a good portion of the summer getting to know it very well, and look forward to baking on it as well as grilling, roasting and smoking. 

I cheated a bit on this meal as I had a batch of premade pizza dough in the freezer so this isn't totally from scratch, but sometimes you just need a little shortcut, right??  This is the third time I have made pizza on my new grill, and it has turned out better each time.  I think I am finally getting the hang of it.  Practice makes perfect.... or at least better!!

There are a few things I have found that work well.  Using a pizza stone helps the crust cook quicker and more evenly and you don't have to prebake one of the sides first before adding the topping.  It allows you to put the raw dough straight onto the stone - toppings and all.

Whether you make your pizza sauce or use it straight from a jar, you are not going to need much of it.  A tip for the extra is to pour it into an ice cube tray.  Freeze until firm and then pop the pizza sauce cubes into a freezer safe bag. Then you have easy to use pizza sauce in small increments whenever you need it. That method works for a wide variety of things and will save you from throwing out massive amounts of jarred foods.

So for this pizza the ingredients are simple.

Pizza dough (homemade or ready made)

Easy pizza dough

Ready to become a pizza

Pizza sauce (homemade or bottled)
Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced (or homegrown even better!)
Fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Fresh basil, oregano and/or parsley for garnish

Fresh oregano, basil and parsley

That's it - You can certainly add chopped veggies or cooked meat to it, but you don't want to overload it so the toppings are too heavy for the dough.

Preheat your grill with the pizza stone inside so it warms up with the grill. Now...assemble your pizza.

On a well-floured surface, pat the dough into a circle , 12-14 inches approximately.  You don't want it too thick or too thin.  Put a thin covering of fine corn meal onto a pizza peel or whatever you are using to transfer the pizza dough to the grill. Place the dough on the cornmeal.

Topping ready...

Put just 3-4 tablespoons of sauce on the dough and spread  to cover.  Add thin tomato slices (no need to cover all of the dough) and thin slices of mozzarella.  You can also sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top.

Time for the grill...

When the grill temperature is 400-450, carefully transfer the pizza dough to the stone and cook 8-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your individual grill. The dough should look lightly browned and the cheese well melted on top.  Remove the cooked pizza from the stone (pizza peels are wonderful transferring to and from the stone), slice, and enjoy!

Cooking on the grill...

Wish you could smell this....YUMMMMM

All that's left is to eat!

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