Authentic Italian Pizza On the Grill!

Anyone who has ever traveled in Italy knows the pizza there is incredible, and entirely different than most pizzas found stateside. Thin, slightly charred crust, topped ever so lightly with freshly made sauces and artisanal meats and cheeses are baked hot and fast to perfection every time. And while most of us lack a wood-fired pizza oven at home, nearly everyone has a grill. So start the fire and get grilling some authentic Italian pizza!

Whether using a gas, charcoal or pellet fired grill, a sustained hot flame is needed to grill pizza. Keep in mind that an authentic Neapolitan pizza oven cooks at 700 to even 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With that said, aiming for somewhere between 400 and 550 degrees is more practical for home-grilled pizzas.

All great pizza begins with good dough. Basic pizza dough is easy to make and requires just a few ingredients – yeast, water, salt, flour and sometimes sugar or olive oil. But since the dough needs time to rise, it is often made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until needed. If time is of essence, good quality dough can also be found in many supermarkets in the refrigerated or frozen section.

Relative to creating a perfect crust are a couple of crucial pieces of equipment. A pizza stone – a round ceramic disc made to withstand high temperatures and promote even heat – is a key element to grilling or baking homemade pizza. The stone helps to create a crisp, authentic-style crust. A pizza peel – a wide, flat wooden “shovel” – is the traditional Italian tool for sliding pizzas onto and off of the hot baking stone.

To keep raw dough from sticking to a pizza stone or peel, sprinkle both generously with fine semolina flour before adding dough. Semolina flour, milled from durum wheat, is developed and grown especially for pasta and is perfectly textured for handling and moving pizza dough.

Freshly made sauce is the next step to authentic-tasting pizza. Italians use a simple, uncooked tomato sauce as the base for most of their pizzas. Other commonly used sauces – like garlic cream sauce, homemade pesto or infused olive oils – are also made fresh and used to add flavor to the dough and accentuate the flavor of other toppings.

When choosing toppings for grilled pizza, keep in mind that the cooking time will be quick. Thinly sliced meats and cheeses work best, sparingly used. Vegetables are often best when cut in small pieces and sautéed in olive oil to accentuate flavor before being placed atop the pizza.

The order for toppings is also important. Begin with a thin smear of sauce over the dough and follow with a lightly and creatively scattered design of meat, cheese and/or vegetables. Herbs are placed on top. In Italy, a handful of fresh arugula – also called rocket – is sometimes added after cooking, as is freshly shaved hard cheese.

Cheese is something Italians take very seriously. While we usually top pizzas with a thick layer of standard shredded cheeses, Italians choose the cheese for pizza very conscientiously and based on how it will complement other ingredients. Fresh mozzarella – often made from water buffalo milk – is the most common, but other soft cheeses such as smoked mozzarella, fontina, ricotta and aged provolone are used as well.

Hard Italian cheeses like pecorino romano, grana padano and parmigiano reggiano, should be freshly shaved or grated and sprinkled on pizza after baking, due to their delicate flavor and dryness.

The ingredient arsenal for home-grilled authentic pizza is limitless. Try basic pizzas first, later expanding your pizza menu to include favorite food pairings and creative homemade sauces. Your passport to real Italian flavor will be fast, fresh and fabulous.