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I love summer and all the beautiful foods it brings us. Grilled Caprese Pizza combines two of summer’s best offerings: caprese salad (give me all the basil) and grilled pizza.
When summer rolls around and those fresh local tomatoes are popping up at the produce market in town, my mind starts brainstorming all the ways I can make caprese salad and convince my husband it’s dinner.
Layers of creamy mozzarella cheese, sliced fresh tomatoes, and handfuls of fresh basil all drizzled in sweet and tangy balsamic vinegar – could anything be better?
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We started grilling pizza last summer on a whim and I quickly fell in love with it.
My favorite pizzas are those with thin crunchy crusts almost blackened from their quick trips in a hot, hot oven. Unfortunately, it’s pretty difficult to recreate that hot pizza oven effect in our home ovens because they just don’t get hot enough. Enter the grill!
Grilling pizza directly on the grates gives us that same crispy, crunchy, charred crust without having to build a fancy outdoor kitchen with a built in pizza oven (not that I would be opposed to this in anyway). It also cooks the pizza really quickly, which means we get to eat Grilled Caprese Pizza that much sooner!
Note: I also just recently read an article suggesting heating up your pizza stone on the grill and cooking your pizza directly on that.
I love that plan because you can get the stone super hot. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think it would work really well. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
My husband does most of the grilling at our house and I do most of the planning and telling him what to grill. We had a beautifully sunny day this past weekend perfect for grilling, so, while our son swam in his little pool and splashed around in his water table, we fired up the grill so
I could give this recipe idea a try. Then I happily ate the leftovers for lunch every day this week.
You won’t need many ingredients for this recipe and hopefully you have a few on hand already. Let’s talk pizza dough in case you’re eyeing this recipe and thinking it looks too complicated.
It isn’t! I love to make my own pizza dough when I have the time, but usually I just pick it up from the bakery section at my grocery store. Grocery stores (and your local bakeries possibly) sell fresh dough that’s proofed and ready to roll out.
You can keep it in your fridge for a few days and take it out when you’re ready for pizza. So easy and perfect for summer when we’d rather be outside than inside wondering if the dough has risen enough yet.
I use one ball of dough to yield 4 small pizzas. You can make one large pizza, but I find it can be a bit unwieldy to turn quickly on the grill. Start by quartering the dough then rolling it into thin rectangles or circles on a well-floured surface.
Once the dough is rolled out, I brush it generously with olive oil and salt and pepper. This is where a lot of flavor is coming from for the pizza – don’t skimp on the salt!
Now that the pizza dough is ready to go, it’s time to prep your other ingredients. Thinly slice the tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and tear basil into large pieces. You want to do all of this before you begin grilling because the grilling will go quickly.
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Once everything is prepped, it’s time to hit the grill. Start by placing the pizza dough directly on the grates. We’ll grill it first on one side and then flip it over to finish.
This gives us crunchy grill marks on both sides and also helps prevent the bottom from cooking too quickly and burning before the dough is done all the way through.
Once you’ve flipped the dough, we’ll quickly layer on the sliced mozzarella and tomatoes then close the grill. The pizzas will cook for a few more minutes until the cheese is melted, the tomatoes soften, and the dough is cooked through.
The cooked pizzas are removed from the grill and topped with fresh basil (I say the more the better) and a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
This is my new favorite way to summer and one of the best flavor combinations I can think of. I hope you enjoy!
- 16 oz refrigerated pizza dough
- 5-6 small tomatoes
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella
- 8 basil leaves
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Start by prepping the grill. Pre-heat it to medium-high heat and clean and oil the grates.
- While the grill heats, prepare the pizza dough. Cut pizza dough ball into equal sections (3 or 4) and roll each section into a thin rectangle or circle. Generously brush olive oil and salt and pepper onto each side of the prepared dough. Next, thinly slice mozzarella cheese and tomatoes and tear the basil leaves into large chunks. Do all of these steps before you begin grilling.
- With all of your ingredients prepped, start by placing dough directly onto grill grates. Close grill and let the dough cook about 4-5 minutes, until the dough easily lifts from the grates and grill marks are apparent. The dough should be about halfway cooked through at this point. Flip the dough and divide the mozzarella and tomato slices between the pizzas. Close grill and continue cooking about 4 minutes or until cheese has melted and dough is cooked through.
- Remove pizzas from grill and top with torn basil and a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
- Cut pizzas into slices and enjoy!