How To Make Pizza on Your Grill

Adam and I fell in love with East Coast style pizza--and more specifically New Haven style pizza during our Connecticut years.  We've been trying to duplicate it ever since.

We love pizza cooked on our grill.  The best way is to get Adam to do it (that's my strategy).  I'm not willing to share him though, so here are the instructions:

Make or buy dough.  We have yet to find The Perfect Pizza Dough recipe.  I think we're getting closer (a little more tweaking) but you can buy pizza dough at Trader Joe's that works great too.  (Do you have a perfect chewy crust recipe?  Please share...)

The first step is to put your pizza stone on the grill and with the lid closed, turn the heat all the way up (try to get it up to 500 degrees).

As you can see our pizza stone is cracked and stained and much loved (abused?).  A less wrecked stone would work just as well...

Next divide your divide your dough into pizza sized chunks:

I made this dough so it needs to be divided...the Trader Joe's dough comes packaged in the right size.

Flatten it with your fingers (Adam is well equipped for this job with his big hands).

Next, with a rolling pin, finish shaping the pizza.  Work from the middle, smoothing to the edges:

Sprinkle corn meal on a wooden pizza paddle.  The tiny grains act as ball bearings for the dough to slide on...you'll see what I mean.

Transfer the dough to the paddle:

Now finish assembling the pizza.  Spread the sauce, either a traditional marinara sauce:

Or we love pesto too:

Sprinkle cheese:

And any other toppings you want:

Can you tell this is my hand instead of Adam's? Adding peppers was my sole contribution.

Next, slide the pizza onto the heated stone.  This is where the corn meal comes in handy...the pizza rolls right over it.  (This is also where an Adam comes in handy because he knows how to do this part.)

Close the lid and after about 5-7 minutes, the pizza is done!  It should look all toasty and bubbly with the crust sometimes a little black (all part of the magic!).

Slide a cooling rack under the pizza to remove it from the stone (because likely your wooden paddle is already loaded with the next pizza):

Lovely lovely pizza...

And three satisfied customers:

Mark has either 1) achieved Pizza Nirvana 2) is asleep or 3) is his mother's child and has his eyes closed for a picture.

You decide.