Pesto Pizza - On the Grill

It is hardly news that this summer has been fracking hot. Even though my house has central AC, I am loath to heat up my kitchen with the oven unless there is a really compelling reason. Normally, making pizza would fall into this "compelling reason" category. But last year, I finally learned to make pizza on the grill, and now pizza is in our summer dinner repertoire. Yay!

If you have a grill and some pizza dough, give this a try. Super easy.

-Heat your grill on high. My lamo grill thermometer, which may be entirely inaccurate, says that high is 400ish.
-While the grill is heating up, roll out your pizza dough and assemble your toppings on a plate to bring out to the grill. This is key: pizza on the grill is quick, so you need to be ready to go all at once.
-Slide the dough onto the grill and close it up. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Take a peak. If it has firmed up and getting grill marks, use tongs and flip it over.
-Quickly put your toppings on and close up the grill again. Wait another 3 minutes or so. Peak. Melty cheese? Browning crust? You are good to go. Pull it off and let it cool for a few minutes before you serve it.

Last week I used the grill method to make a delicious pesto, chicken and fresh mozzarella pizza. It rocked.

The beauty of using the grill, in addition to preventing your kitchen from becoming a sweat lodge, is that you can easily grill vegetables to adorn your lovely pizza. I grilled up onions and zucchinni for this one, though the zucchini ended up being a side dish.

Also, if your children, for reasons unfathomable, reject pizza as a dinner option, use some of the extra dough to make grilled pita. Just roll it super thin, toss it on the grill and don't flip it. It will make a super cool bubble for your kids to pop.