Grilled Pizza

Ok, so I know the picture isn’t great, and my first attempt at grilled pizza was far from perfect, but it was still pretty delicious.

We just bought one of those little Weber charcoal kettle grills and I naively thought it would be as easy to use as a gas grill. Turns out I have a lot to learn. Once we finally got the coals lit and the grill going, the heat didn’t last very long. We were able to barely grill this pizza, but didn’t get to make the second pizza I had in the works.

Anyways, I had planned on making this pizza according to the instructions on Serious Eats. I had all of the ingredients prepared in advance – caramelized shallots, sautéed cremini and shitake mushrooms, grated pecorino, and chopped chives. We took a shortcut and used some pizza dough from whole foods that I cut in half, stretched out (in an odd shape as you can see above), and brushed with olive oil. Once we put it on the grill, oiled side down, it just didn’t seem hot enough. Instead of the recommended 1 – 1 ½ minutes on the first side, I had to let it cook for over five minutes. Once I flipped it, I added the mushrooms, onions, and cheese. Since we didn’t use a lot of cheese and the rest of the toppings were still warm, I left the grill uncovered for most of the time.

Thankfully, it eventually did get crisp at the bottom. I added some chopped chives and some flaky sea salt at the end. Despite the hiccups with the grill, it was actually VERY delicious. I plan on making many more attempts this summer.

If anyone is actually reading this, I would love some tips on how to get (and keep) charcoal grills hot!