I live with a pizza aficionado, not to be confused with pizza snob. From the cheapest frozen pizza to Tutta Bella, our favorite local VPN Certified Pizzeria, he is an equal opportunity pizza consumer! Needless to say we also make a lot of pizza at home. I have always loved the flavor of homemade pizza but the crust would be soggy regardless of how little sauce was used.
Lucky for everyone, I was commissioned to research how to achieve Neapolitan style pizza in a former life. This is how I learned the secret of great pizza crust is made by cooking with crazy intense heat. High heat creates blisters of caramelized crust which is where the great flavor comes from. We have found a cranking hot grill caramelizes the crust and creates a tasty pizza base. Here is a good solution to get that crazy intense heat at home by using your outdoor grill. Along with your grill you will need pan spray, a half sheet pan or round pizza pan and GUTS! Tongs are optional. Here is how you do it.
- Preheat your grill on the highest setting, cover down. Preheat your oven to 450°
- Prepare your pizza toppings. Cut your veggies, cook off sausage etc. and make sure your pizza sauce is up to par.
- Set up a station in your kitchen with all toppings, a spoon for the sauce, even the cutting board & knife you plan to use to cut up the pizza when its complete.
- Stretch or roll your ready-to-go dough as thin as humanly possible and let rest on a sprayed pan.Once the crust is bubbly across the top and consistently browned across the bottom, you’ll need to flip it over. Again you can use your finger tips or a pair of tongs.
- Work into a shape so it fits in the pan.
- I purchase frozen pizza dough that is locally made from an independent Italian Bakery. If you don’t have one of those, you can check specialty grocery stores and sometimes restaurants will even sell you a pound of pizza dough.
properly stretched dough
- Return to grill and clean the grill grates with a grill brush.
- If you have misplaced your grill brush, you can clean the grates using a big wadded up piece of foil and a pair of tongs. Hold the foil with the tongs and use it like you would a brush.
- Take the rested pizza dough to the grill, give it a final stretch and flop it flat on to the preheated grates.
- At this point you will need to be constantly supervising the dough, lifting the edges to check for brownness. You can use your finger tips or a pair of tongs to do this.
grilled bottom side of crust
- At this point you will need to be constantly supervising the dough, lifting the edges to check for brownness. You can use your finger tips or a pair of tongs to do this.
- Once the crust is bubbly across the top and consistently browned across the bottom, you’ll need to flip it over. You can use your finger tips or a pair of tongs.
night time pizza grilling, crust mid-flip
7. Second side only needs to grill just until the dough is set and light grill marks are achieved.
side of crust & scavaging Barkley
8. Return to pan, darker side of the crust facing down, assemble toppings and bake in the preheated oven until brown and bubbly.
- When done, transfer to cutting board and cut as desired.
- Never cut anything on a metal surface, you’ll dull your knife
That’s it! Please feel free to post any comments, questions or improvements on the above procedures.
Visit http://www.tuttabella.com/vpn/ to learn more information about Neapolitan Style Pizza and what it means to be VPN Certified.
~Marla
Pizza as Pictured: Homemade Turkey Sausage, Green Peppers, Black Olives, Sweet Onions and 3 Cheese Blend. Parchment Paper is completely optional.
