The Ultimate Guide to Grilled Pizza

The Toppings

Other Cheeses

On top of your base of melted mozzarella and Parm, you can always add dollops of other cheeses for enhanced flavor or texture. Creamy slices of fresh mozzarella (or mozzarella di bufala), blue cheese, fresh ricotta, stinky French cheeses; it’s all good. The key is to apply in spots, and be sparing. Remember—massive amounts of cheese will not melt!

Marinated/Pickled/Preserved Stuff

This pie combines some fresh ricotta, along with sliced sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil.

Other marinated/pickled/preserved things you could try are:

• Olives, sliced or whole pitted
• Anchovies
• Artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
• Mushrooms, sliced or quartered
• Hot peppers or sweet peppers, sliced
• Roasted red peppers, sliced
• Sardines
• Hot pepper cream
• Giardiniera
• Capers

Par-Cooked Vegetables

For the pie above, I cooked down sliced onions and portobello mushrooms in olive oil until well caramelized, then spread them over the pie on top of the tomatoes. Other options include:

• Roasted shallots
• Sauteed peppers
• Braised greens, like kale or collards
• Greens sauteed with a bit of olive oil and garlic
• Roasted or sauteed, whole or sliced garlic bulbs
• Tomato slices or split cherry tomatoes slow-roasted in the oven with olive oil and garlic
• Braised or roasted fennel
• Sauteed eggplant and squashes
• Potatoes, boiled and sliced (I like creamy yellow fingerling or Yukon Golds)
• Mashed potatoes, made with plenty of olive oil (and if you’re into it, truffle oil. I’m not into it).
• Fruit, lightly sauteed in butter with or without sugar

Grilled Vegetables

You’ve already got the grill going, so why not grill a few vegetables to top your pizza with? The pie above is made with thin slices of grilled eggplant (I brushed them with oil before grilling), along with strips of marinated red pepper. You can grill basically any vegetable that you can par-cook indoors. I especially like to grill scallions or onions. Asparagus are awesome as well. Grill them whole, then chop them up before topping.

Cured Meats

Ok, so I know some folks like to stick chicken, steak, hamburger meat, and the like on a pizza, but for me, that just seems wrong for some reason. It’s as if the pizza is not good enough on its own, and you’ve gotta make up for it by sticking another meal on top. Of course, if you feel otherwise, the grill is a perfect place to cook off some protein before slicing and topping your pizza with it.

Cured meats applied sparingly, however, flavor the pizza without overpowering it. The pie above has got very thin slices of soppresata (which warm through just fine from the residual heat, releasing a bit of their spicy oil), along with some chunks of sauteed sausage, which I browned in a skillet beforehand. Here are some more ideas:

• Thinly sliced pepperoni, cooked in the microwave or oven until crisp
• Thinly sliced prosciutto, speck, jamón Serrano, or other types of raw cured ham
• Crumbled browned sausage meat
• Bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled
• Guanciale, fatback, lardo, and other cured pork fat products, sliced thin and applied raw
• Salami, soppresata, mortadella, bresaola, lomo, or other cured sausages, sliced thin and applied raw

Finishing Touches: Fresh Herbs and Flavored Oils

A little bit of green goes a long way. As I said, the storm blew away our basil from this photo shoot, which explains the number of pies topped with sliced scallion greens here, but those are far from your only two options. Freshly chopped parsley, oregano, thyme, chives, rosemary, marjoram, you name it, it’ll work on a pizza. Apply these to the pies just before serving.

Flavored oils are another way to add richness and complexity. The simplest way is to use a good quality extra-virgin olive oil. If you want to get more complex, try infusing oil with various flavors. Whole garlic cloves, chili flakes, black pepper, dry spices, fresh herbs, anything is fair game here. I like to warm the oil slightly (to about 150°F) then pour it over the flavorings until they’re just covered, then let it sit out at room temperature at least overnight.

Be aware that infused oils don’t last forever and do carry some risk of botulism. Make and use them fresh.

Combinations

Here are a couple examples of successful combinations:

This was one of my favorite pies of the night. I combined slices of fresh mozzarella, a few dabs of olive oil-mashed potatoes in place of the tomato, sliced par-boiled fingerling potatoes, and freshly grilled scallions. I drizzled the whole thing with good extra-virgin olive oil after it was done. It was awesome. Perhaps some chopped thyme, rosemary, or oregano could have pushed it over the top, but it didn’t really need it.

This pie starts with a bit of fontina cheese, then pears sauteed in sugar and butter are added on top while the pizza cooks. As soon as the pie comes off the grill, a handful of arugula is added (not too much—this is a pizza after all, not salad on bread), it’s drizzled with a little extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and spread with ultra-thin slices of prosciutto. It’s sweet, salty, porky, peppery, and pretty freaking awesome.

Of course, all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. The combinations are truly endless, as long as you keep three simple maxims in mind:

1. Par-cook any toppings that need to be cooked. This means cooking indoors, or grilling, and includes any and all meats and vegetables that can’t heat through under the retained warmth of the pizza crust.
2. Keep it simple. It’s easy to go overboard, but the best pies usually have two or three toppings max. Consider texture, flavor, and color when picking toppings to go together.
3. Apply sparingly. Grilled pizzas are delicate beasts and not intended to hold massive amounts of toppings like, say, a pan pizza. If you’ve got more topping by weight than crust, you’re probably stepping over the line.

Now that you have all this information and knowledge, bookmark this page and share it with your friends.  They will thank you later!

Enjoy!

Source