Home American Homemade Grilled Pizza with Pesto

Homemade Grilled Pizza with Pesto

August 2, 2023

5.0 from 1 vote

Grilled pizza may be the ultimate summer meal. Made on your gas grill and topped with garden fresh vegetables, this healthy and wholesome alternative to traditional takeout pizza brings the taste of Italy to your backyard.

Pizza is on our Mount Rushmore of favorite foods. What if I told you that our grilled pizza with pesto recipe will allow you to create an elite homemade pizza. After one or two attempts on your grill, your homemade pizza will be better than all but the absolute best pizzerias.

The grill gives the crust a crispy pizza exterior with a chewy interior and a hint of smoke. The texture of the dough will remind you of the classic pizzerias in New York City or any renowned pizza haven. We then use garden fresh tomatoes and mozzarella to create a classic grilled pie. Add a few stripes of pesto for some additional goodness. Other toppings aren’t necessary but are left to the discretion of the cook. Popular options are pepperoni, sausage and peppers, banana peppers with onions, ricotta and spinach, prosciutto and arugula, pesto or mushroom. The choices are endless. Sounds good, but some may ask:

Why grill your pizza?

The simple answer is the grill allows you to cook at a hotter temperature than your kitchen oven. Your griddle sitting above the gas burners of your grill ( or charcoal if you are going old school) will generate heat at the base of your pizza that a traditional kitchen oven cannot match. The result is a crunchy crust with a light and chewy interior and a hint of smoke. Try it once and you will never ask this question again.

Grill versus an outdoor pizza oven

We will never say that an outdoor pizza oven is a bad idea or that you wont get great results from one of these. The pizza from an oven will be fantastic. The problem most of us run into is the cost benefit analysis. The outdoor oven will cost a few hundred to a thousand dollars or more. Once purchased, where do you store another outdoor item that you may not use extremely often.

If you have the cash, space, passion, and are confidant you will use it often, go ahead and invest in one. You will love it. If you are not certain you will use it more than a few times per year and dont have the cash or space to store it, you can get a fantastic result using your existing outdoor grill. Our technique will work great. However, if you are looking to cook a bunch of pies you may want to try this technique.

This technique wont get you to 800-900F as a pizza oven will, but you will cook hotter than your kitchen oven or using an unmodified grill. The additional heat will do wonders to your crust and will add that slight smokey flavor to the pie. Be warned, cooking at a higher temperature will take more practice and you will likely burn a few pies learning. The additional work may also be a bit much for making one or two pies for your family. This is a personal decision that each of us must make for ourselves.

Grilling pizza on a stone

A pizza stone works well on your outdoor grill as it provides a buffer from the bbq flame underneath and will assist you from burning the bottom of the crust. When using a stone, you must either use a peel or build your pie on a pan and then place the pan on the stone. Using a pizza peel to place the pie directly on the stone is more traditional. This technique does take some trial and error to perfect. Be certain to use enough flour to allow the pie to slip onto and off the peel without an epic fail.

If you are willing to play around with this, you will eventually master the technique and create a great pie. To learn, you must be willing to mess up a few times and accept that you will damage a few pie when placing them on the peel or transferring from the peel to the stone. The trick is to use the correct amount of flour under the dough, and not place too many toppings on the raw dough.

A safer way to begin using your grill to cook your pizza is to heat the stone on the grill and build your pie on a pizza pan. This avoids the need to learn the skill of using a pizza peel and allows you to really load up the pie with as many toppings as you desire. We use a T-Fal pizza pan that we coat with crisco, then stretch the dough and place onto the pan. Once on the pan, load the pie with sauce, cheese and toppings. When complete place the pan directly on the pizza stone.

Once placed on the stone, we usually must turn the pie once. Expect to have a cooked pizza in less than 5 minutes. You will have to learn how hot to set your grill to get the perfect crust. We recommend you start a bit cooler and work you way up to avoid ruining your first few attempts.

How to grill pizza without a stone

If you are not using a stone, you must use a griddle on your grill. This is our preferred choice for making a grilled pizza. While the grill is heating, build your pie. Grease up the griddle, stretch your dough and place on the griddle. Follow up with cheese, sauce and toppings. We recommend lowering the temperature of the grill where the griddle is placed. To reach the target temperature within the grill, increase the heat on a burner that is open or not directly below the griddle. If your griddle covers your entire grill, you should heat the grill on high, then lower the temperature to medium to avoid burning the dough until you learn your grill.

If your crust is not browning and the pie is almost cooked, simply raise the temperature of the burners below the griddle and your dough will get crispy in a few minutes. Remember, it is easier to get a crusty crust from undercooked than fix crust that is burnt. You must play around with this technique a few times until you learn your grill and how hot it must be to get a crusty bottom without burning.

What temperature should my gas grill be for grilled pizza?

Preheat your grill from a range of 400 to 500F. When we use the griddle, we lower the temperature of the grates below the griddle before placing the griddle onto the grill. This is a tweak to the indirect heat grilling technique used to cook meats after searing. Every grill is different so you will need to play around with your grill and griddle to determine what temperatures work best. We recommend starting at a lower temperature to avoid burning. Once you learn your grill and pan, you can elevate the temperature to ensure a well cooked pie that doesn’t burn.

Where can I find the dough for a grilled pizza

You can purchase your dough from your local pizzeria or bakery. We do not recommend frozen or dough found in the rolled packages found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket. We prefer to make our own using our 90 minute pizza dough recipe. It is super easy and you only need a bread machine and 90 minutes. Simply add all the ingredients, and turn on the dough setting. You will have a good quality dough in 90 minutes. For reduced carbs or if you are allergic to gluten, consider a store bought cauliflower crust. These can be good, but in our opinion, only choose this option if you must.

90 Minute Pizza Dough
Difficulty: Easy
Homemade pizza dough in 90 minutes!

4 votes 5.0 Cuisine: Italian

Is grilled pizza healthy?

Takeout or frozen pizza is often loaded with added grease and fat. These pies are simple to heat up but are definitely not healthy. Making your own allows you to control what goes into the pie. We dont understand why so much oil or grease is often added to frozen or takeout. Using high quality ingredients will get you the fantastic flavor you crave without the unnecessary calories and fat. The choice of toppings can make a healthy pizza into a greasy disaster. We love using a lower calorie pesto on a classic pie. The trick is using ricotta which allows you to reduce the added oils and fat.

Preparation of our lower calorie pesto.

If carbs are a concern, note that the crust will give you a good dose of carbs. Options to reduce those carbs would be using whole wheat flour or a cauliflower crust. However, as long as your diet can handle them, we can’t think of a better way to enjoy carbs.

Grilled Pizza Ideas

So you gave this recipe a try and are addicted to grilled pizza on your backyard barbecue. While a plain cheese pie is delectable, you may want some other options you can create on the grill. A word of caution, your choice of toppings may take that healthy pizza and transform it into the unhealthy category by adding fatty toppings. Common culprits include sausage, pepperoni and meatballs.

Some of our favorite toppings included banana peppers, mushroom and onion, sausage and peppers, spinach and ricotta and fresh tomatoes and ricotta, broccoli and garlic. Try using grilled chicken to create a bbq chicken or buffalo chicken pizza. It is also recommended to experiment with other cheeses. A favorite of ours is smoked Gouda in place of mozzerella on barbecue or buffalo chicken pizza. Lastly, traditional meat toppings such as meatball and pepperoni are always fantastic

During the summer, we recommend replacing traditional tomato sauce with fresh cherry tomatoes cut in half and quickly sautéed with garlic and fresh basil. Another great summer topping is fresh zucchini with balsamic vinegar and prosciutto. Who doesn’t love cheeseburgers during the summer? Try topping your grilled pie with cheeseburger. Need a side? Try these delicious zuchini bites. Don’t let our suggestions limit your imagination. The beauty of grilled pizza is you can top it with whatever sounds or looks good that day. Make a pizza you think is fantastic? Please send us a message either here or on our instagram, @thefiftiesfightclub. We would love to hear all about it!

How do I make grilled pizza?

It all starts with the crust. Our 90 minute pizza dough is a great place to start. If you have a favorite pizzaria that will sell you their dough, that would be another great option. Supermarket dough that is frozen is not a recommended option. It will make a pie, however, our experience is it will be difficult to stretch and will be disappointing.

While the dough is being prepared or rising, prepare your toppings. A quick marinara comprised of onions, garlic and good quality tomatoes is a great start. Season with salt, pepper and basil. Make sure the sauce isn’t too thin or it will ruin your crust. For the cheese, any mozzerella will work fine. Fresh mozzerella will add a bit more flavor. Pecorino Romano is also a must. Please do not use the jarred Parmesan. Cheese that doesn’t require refrigeration is probably a bad option. Lastly, if using a pesto, either purchase in store or follow the basic lower calorie version we have included in the notes below.

Assembling the pizza

To prepare, begin by lighting the grill to get it hot. Stretch your dough to fit the griddle. A good quality griddle is a must. The non stick griddle recommended below would be a solid addition to your kitchen and produce terrific grilled pizzas . To get an airy dough, try to avoid using a rolling pin with stretching. Coat the griddle with crisco and then add the stretched dough. Top with sliced mozzerella then cover with the sauce. Drizzle pesto or place pesto into a zip-lock bag and cut a small hole in the bottom corner. Squeeze the bag to apply a few swirls of pesto. Finish with a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano and oregano. Red pepper flakes are optional.

When grill is at 400-500F, lower the portion of the grill where your griddle will lie to medium or lower depending on your grills heat profile. We suggest the first time you grill your pizza, cook at a lower temperature until you are familiar with the grill. Once familiar you can increase the heat. Place griddle on the grill and close the lid. Let cook for 3-5 minutes and check. Dough should have risen and cheese begun to melt. Check the crust. If not browning, increase the temperature. Cook until you have a dark brown and crunchy crust. Remove and serve immediately. Enjoy!

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