Who doesn’t love pizza?  It happens to be a mainstay at our house, especially on those busy nights, but store bought pizza has nothing on a delicious homemade grilled pizza.  All you need is a grill and a few fresh ingredients.

We started grilling pizza a few years ago.  We couldn’t believe how amazing it turns out — and we’ve been making this delicious treat ever since.  I can guarantee you will never find a better tasting pie.  It’s great for a family meal or for entertaining.  You can dress it up any way that you’d like.  You can make it with pre-made pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. But, today, I’m offering you one of my family’s favorite preparations which happens to include only seven fresh ingredients – tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, mozzarella cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and pizza dough.  It’s perfect for those lazy summers when turning on the stove is the last thing on your mind — and it happens to be an excellent recipe for the multitude of summer tomatoes in your garden.  This pizza is like a grilled bruschetta — topped with melted cheese — but so much better than you would ever imagine.   Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

In order to make the recipe more manageable, I purchase the pizza dough. You can buy it from your local pizzeria or supermarket.  I like to get mine at Trader Joe’s (which also happens to offer a whole wheat dough and an herbed dough option).  However, for this pizza, I recommend an original dough — nothing fancy.  Just enjoy the simplicity of the fresh ingredients.

The process is not complicated, it just involves a few steps.  I’ve included some pictures below to help explain the process.  Before you get started make sure you have the following tools on hand:

• BBQ grill
• Pastry brush for the olive oil
• Pizza peel or flat cutting boards for transferring dough to grill
• Tongs
• 2 large baking sheets

And, here is a visual breakdown of the steps — which I detail in the directions:

Grilled Pizza with Fresh Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil
Yields 2 pizzas

For the sauce:
20 ounces of tomatoes, chopped (grape tomatoes, plum tomatoes, any kind you like)
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of fresh basil, chopped

2 packages of store bought pizza dough (I used 16 ounce dough from Trader Joes)
12 ounces of mozzarella cheese (I use low moisture mozzarella cheese since the sauce is so loose, you don’t want extra water)
1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for the grill

Directions:

Preheat grill on high; coat grill grates with olive oil.

Assemble tomato sauce, combining chopped tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper.

Slice mozzarella cheese and grate parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

Roll dough out on a floured surface.  Transfer dough to pizza peel (or a flat cutting board). Coat top of dough with olive oil.

Flip dough onto hot grill.  Let it cook until bubbles form on top of dough — timing really all depends on width of dough — but 5 minutes is a good estimate.  I usually close the grill for this part — but, if this is your first time making grilled pizza, keep an eye on the dough and the grill flame.  You don’t want to burn the dough.

Once bubbles form, and the underside of dough is browned (with grill marks), flip the dough with tongs.

Top dough with tomatoes, cheeses — and salt and pepper if you’d like.  Close grill lid and cook until the cheese melts and the bottom of the pizza is nice and brown and branded with grill marks — you are looking at another 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the dough.

Serve immediately.

Helpful hint: Make the pizza with a friend — or your partner. It helps to have an extra set of hands – especially if you plan on making more than one pizza.