Oh My Gosh...I Just Grilled My First Pizza!

I've been seeing all these recipes for pizza on the grill. There's one with a Thai Peanut sauce that will have to be in my future...but for now, I thought, let's just try the simple Margherita Pizza. 

There is actually an interesting legend about this pizza- how it got its name...it involves an Italian queen and a letter with a royal seal. Was it the queen's letter or was it not? You decide: BBC Food: Was the margherita pizza really named after Italy's queen?

Actually, the word margherita means daisy...which happens to be my favorite flower!

So enough with the sleuthing and flowers...let's cook!

Ingredients:

Fresh Basil- this came from a tiny herb garden in my back yard.

I love tomato- you can use pizza sauce, but I opted for Classico's Bruschetta. You will need refrigerated pizza dough (no- I do not make my own), fresh sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella- sliced, olive oil, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper.
(Note: the ingredients of the pizza are the same colors of the Italian flag. And yes- that is a crab made out of forks and spoons in the background.)

Grilling:

Heat your grill (pizza stone already on grill top) to 400 degrees. I sprinkled cornmeal on the top to make it easier to get the dough off later. I painted  the bottom of the dough with olive oil. Pre-bake the dough for roughly 6 minutes. (Let me pause here...notice the dough is shaped strangely...yes- it is. I did not make a perfect round- the stone it hot and transferring dough to a hot stone doesn't allow for lovely shaped dough. Plus- it kind of fits my personality- perfection is overrated...I think the imperfection makes it interesting!)
Then top with Bruchetta, mozzarella, basil and tomato. Grill an additional 8 to 10 minutes- cheese is gooey, tomatoes soften and basil wilts a bit. 

Here is the finished product!
I did put the tomatoes directly on the grill briefly to char a bit. I would start with that next time, and then put them on the pizza; but due to the constancy of the fresh mozzarella, I didn't have a problem removing them and then adding them back.
I topped with fresh ground sea salt and pepper.
(Note: the tomatoes and bruschetta will release juice as it cooks. Watch out- it's hot. Before topping with salt and pepper, you might want to dab some of the juices off.)

Okay- so I was pretty proud of myself. This was a first try, and pushing my grilling boundaries turned out to be good thing! It was incredibly tasty...and the smell- heaven! 

I will definitely try this again...maybe next time with prosciutto...Yum!

Happy Grilling! 

La Bonne Vie Y'all!