Homemade Grilled Pizza

The other night, Chris and I had our own little pizza party at home, with homemade pizza! We grilled it on the outdoor grill and it was so much fun! I totally recommend doing this sometime. It's not as hard as you would think and it's fun to do together. :) I made two different kinds, a girly pizza and a manly pizza (wasn't sure if my cheese and arugula would fill hubby up).  I made a red pepper pesto and used that for the pizza sauce, but regular pizza sauce would work great too. I have to admit, I used store bought, fresh pizza dough (which was awesome!) as this recipe is already a bit time consuming.
Anyways, here's me having a little fun channeling my inner pizza-dough-tosser (is that a real word?):

Red Pepper Pesto

2 red bell peppers, roasted
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 c fresh basil leaves
3 T pine nuts
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Roast the red peppers and peel the skins off. Place the peppers, garlic, basil, and pine nuts into the food processor. Pulse a few times. Turn food processor on and slowly stream in oil; blend until smooth. Add in the Parmesan, salt and pepper and pulse a few more times.Scrape mixture into a bowl.

Homemade Grilled Rustic Pizza

 

First I'll start with the pesto, arugula pizza.

Canola oil, as needed
Salt and pepper
Red pepper pesto, see above
12 oz fresh Mozzarella, sliced
Few handfuls of fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano, shaved
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 cups baby arugula leaves

Light the grill to med-high heat. Roll out your dough and brush the top with canola oil. Season the top with salt and pepper. Place the dough on the grill, oiled side down and grill until bottom is slightly charred and golden brown. Brush the top with additional oil before flipping it over. Continue grilling until the crust is slightly firm, about 30 seconds to a minute.
Transfer the crust to a baking sheet and top with pesto, then onions, arugula, mozzarella and Parmigiano. Place the pan on the grill and close the cover. Cook for a few more minutes, or until the cheese is nice and melty. :) Take pizza off grill and place on cutting board. Slice and serve!

Grilled Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pizza

Olive oil or canola oil
1/2 lb hot sausage links, cooked
1 roasted red pepper
1 roasted yellow pepper
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Fontina or Parmesan cheese, shredded

Prepare pizza the same as above. You really can't go wrong making this pizza......just use the ingredients that you like. We used pesto on half of this pizza and just used oil for the other half (although I totally prefer the pesto!).

Just have fun with this! I really hope some of you try making your ow pizza and let me know how it goes!