Pizza on the BBQ

Not to be confused with BBQ pizza, which is really just wrong to me. I don't want BBQ sauce anywhere near my pizza. Sorry CPK. However, making actual pizza with tomato sauce and cheese on the BBQ, yes please.

We are big fans of homemade pizza. It's our Friday night tradition -- make your own pizza and family movie night. My husband is the pizza dough expert and even makes the sauce from scratch. However, for our pizza on the BBQ we used a flatbread recipe for the dough from Mario Batali's Italian Grill cookbook. The first time we had these flatbreads was at a party at the home of some good friends. I bought the cookbook the next day and we make the flatbreads and several other recipes from Italian Grill all the time (flatbread recipe below).

This was our first attempt at pizza on the BBQ and it was a big hit all around.

We usually have a bottle of white wine in the fridge that we use for cooking, but since we didn't have one already open and we did have a bottle of red wine on the counter, we used red instead of white wine in the dough. It actually gave it a really nice, tangy flavor and the kids loved the purple tint to the pizza dough.

I hope you'll give Norwindian Pizza on the BBQ a try this summer.

Sage Flatbreads

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons finely minced sage

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup dry white wine, at room temperature

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and sage and mix well. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the warm water, wine and olive oil. Using a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until the mixture is too stiff to stir, then mix with your hands in the bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn the dough out. Kneed gently, dusting the work surface lightly with more flour if needed, for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, elastic, and only slightly sticky.

Oil a large clean bowl, add the dough and turn to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, set in a warm part of the kitchen and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Gently punch down the dough, turn out onto a cutting board or work surface, and cut into 10 pieces (or 5 larger pieces for pizza dough). Roll each piece under your palm into a ball and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes (the dough will not double in size).

Preheat your grill. On a lightly floured surface use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a round for pizza about the size of a dinner plate. Place them on the hottest part of the grill and cook on both sides.

Place each cooked pizza dough on a plate and have your diners put on the sauce, cheese and their own toppings of choice.

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Place the pizzas back on the grill and close the grill. Check them every few minutes and pull them off when the cheese is just melted. The pizzas pair nicely with homemade lemonade garnished squished raspberries. Enjoy!