Grilled Heirloom Tomato Pizza

The absolute happiest day for us each summer is the first time we get to grill an heirloom tomato pizza. There is absolutely nothing on earth that compares with it, especially if we are fortunate enough to have a nice assortment of juicy heirloom tomatoes and a bounty of fresh basil.

We grill pizza quite often in the summer. I posted a recipe for Grilled Zucchini Pizza, in July 2013, which is made the same way as this pizza. We make our own dough, but any pizza dough will work. All the magick is in the fresh ingredients and the hot grill.

When the grill is hot, I spray it lightly with olive oil. I flop the shaped dough out of the pan and onto the grill for a few minutes, until the bottom is nicely grilled. I then flip it onto a pizza peel (that has been dusted with cornmeal) — cooked side up — to top as desired. The pizza is returned to the grill, using the pizza peel, to finish cooking.

Ingredients

fresh-from-the-garden heirloom tomato slices, about 1/4″ thick
olive oil
finely chopped garlic
grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Trader Giotto’s Quattro Formaggio cheese blend
dried oregano, or Italian spice blend
hot pepper flakes, to taste
prepared pizza crust
fresh basil leaves

The cheese blend, and the hot pepper flakes are both just something that I always have on hand. Any good melting cheese would work just fine, but I always have used a combination of mozzarella and provolone if I didn’t have access to this 4-cheese blend. As far as the hot pepper is concerned, that is something I always have on hand from my own garden-grown hot peppers, but you can substitute pizza pepper or just leave it out.

Instructions

After grilling the first side of the pizza dough, I removed it from the fire (flipping it over onto a pizza peel, as mentioned previously) and spread it, lightly, with olive oil, crushed garlic and grated Parmesan cheese.

I slice the tomatoes — I think I had a combination of Tie Dyes, Mister Stripeys and Green Zebras — and then I broke several of them into small pieces, over the crust, so the juice would fall onto the crust, as well, and sprinkled the tomatoes with some dried oregano or Italian spice blend. I then added a light sprinkling of the cheese blend, and sprinkled the top with some more Parmesan and some pepper flakes. I tore some fresh basil leaves on top, and returned the pizza to the grill (using the pizza peel).

I then lowered my coals a bit, and closed the lid. The pizza was finished when the bottom was nicely browned and the cheese had melted!

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Serving suggestion: We always enjoy a salad, of some kind, with our pizza. For this meal, we had our “house favorite” — red leaf lettuce, sliced celery, sliced red onion, fresh garden tomatoes and crumbled bleu cheese, simply dressed with olive oil & red wine vinegar. We always, always eat this garnished with garlic-stuffed olives! No olives in the house? Then it will be no “house salad” that night! But, there will ALWAYS be red wine.