Grilled Pizza
The origin of this audacious act was a misunderstanding. A vendor told the Al Forno owners about a grilled pizza he saw in Italy. It turned out to be a pizza cooked in a wood burning oven–an admirable way to cook a pizza to be sure, but short of revolutionary, for pizzas and other flatbreads have been cooked in wood burning ovens almost since the birth of humanity.
What was revolutionary was the idea of cooking a pizza directly on the grill grate. Audacious, too, because George and Johanna had no idea whether the dough would cook–or ooze through the bars of the grate onto the fire.
Well, cook it did, the crust browning and blistering on the bottom, the pizza dough acquiring a smoky, crackling crispness. It was utterly unlike a conventional pizza and it was utterly delicious!
Over time, George and Johanna perfected the technique, stretching the dough in a generously olive oiled baking sheet (instead of stretching and tossing it with flour as you’d do to make a conventional pizza). To facilitate stretching, they formed a rectangular pizza (rather than the conventional round one). They draped the dough onto the grate over the hot part of the fire from the bottom, then slid it over the cooler part of the fire to invert it and apply the toppings.
The toppings turned the conventional notion of how to assemble a pizza on its head. Traditionally, you add the tomato sauce first, then the garnishes (onions, peppers, olives, pepperoni), and finally the cheese. But with grilled pizza Al Forno style, cheese went on first (it needs more time to melt), then the garnishes, then finally the sauce (the latter needs no cooking; it’s already cooked.
Al Forno’s grilled pizza became the signature dish of the restaurant, not to mention an icon of American grilling. But it took dexterity to stretch and grill the dough without burning it.
Pizza Stones and Ovens
Enter the next leap forward in the evolution of grilled pizza: the grill top pizza stone. Made of high heat tolerant ceramic and available round or square, the pizza stone turned your grill into an outdoor pizza oven. You could use it on any sort of grill: kettle, kamado, pellet, gas grill. And it wasn’t long before freestanding miniature outdoor pizza ovens, like the OONI and Solo Stove—were born.
Pizza stones function like the ovens at your neighborhood pizza place—you slide the dough onto the heated stone, and it cooks like a conventional pizza. You assemble this sort of pie the conventional way—crust first, then tomato or other sauce, then cheese and topping. The high heat makes the dough puff instantly, giving you the crisp, softly chewy texture we so prize in a Neapolitan-style pizza. Familiar. Delectable to be sure. But not quite as interesting as the Al Forno style pizza, direct grilled over the coals.
What’s your favorite way to cook pizza? On a stone? Or directly on the grill?
Here are some recipes to try!
Grilled Pizza Recipes
Check out our 1000+ Recipes section here on Barbecue Bible.Com
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