Grilled Pizza Beats Baked Pizza Every Time

These pies are proof that when it comes to pizza, grilled beats oven-baked every time.

You’d have to be crazy to diss pizza fresh from the oven. But give a za some time to crisp up on a fiery grill — just enough to melt the cheese, char the crust and emboss it with blackened grill marks — and you’ve taken your pie game to the next level. If you’ve never grilled pizza before, check out our step-by-step instructions for How to Make Grilled Pizza. Or pull out all the stops with a Grilled Pizza Bar, an easy summer party idea that will prove to your friends and family why grilled pizza trumps oven-baked every time.

To make his Grilled Pizza with Hot Sausage, Grilled Peppers and Onions and Oregano Ricotta (pictured above), grill master Bobby Flay starts by charring pizza dough crust over some sizzling-hot grates, then adds grated fontina, hot Italian sausage, and grilled peppers and red onions. But his secret ingredient is dollops of fresh ricotta mixed with fresh chopped oregano.

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These Grilled Pizzas, featured in Food Network Magazine, are for the purists out there — the pizza aficionados for whom the word “pizza” means only a pared-down (yet ethereal) trifecta of dough, sauce and cheese. Make a basic dough, top it with a simple sauce made with little more than some San Marzanos, garlic and red pepper, and some thin slices of fresh “mozzarell.” Add a scattering of basil leaves, if you don’t think that’s too showy.

Food Stylist: Jamie Kimm 
Prop Stylist: Marina Malchin ,Food Stylist: Jamie Kimm 
Prop Stylist: Marina Malchin

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Food Stylist: Jamie Kimm Prop Stylist: Marina Malchin ,Food Stylist: Jamie Kimm Prop Stylist: Marina Malchin

Photo by: Antonis Achilleos

Antonis Achilleos

You won’t find any red sauce on our sweet-and-savory Grilled Hawaiian Pizza from Food Network Magazine. And with shortcut ingredients like prepared pizza dough, deli ham and shredded cheeses, it comes together quickly and deliciously, with zero hassle.

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Photo by: Steve Giralt

Steve Giralt

For Chef Anne Burrell, summer entertaining means homemade pizza dough, a hot grill and an array of creative toppings. Her Grilled Pizzettas, featured in Food Network Magazine, recipe makes individual-sized pies for you and five of your friends, with two options for add-ons: prosciutto-arugula or puttanesca with Taleggio. But she confides, “These toppings are just suggestions. Get as nutty as you want.”

Food Stylist: Stephana Bottom
Prop stylist: Marina Malchin

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Food Stylist: Stephana Bottom Prop stylist: Marina Malchin

©Con Poulos

Con Poulos

Need to clear some room in your fridge? Get inspired to make an easy mix-and-match meal with Food Network Magazine's  Grilled Everything Pizza "recipe." Give a basic dough a little time on the grill and top it with a dead-simple sauce (made by grilling three vine-ripened tomatoes, then crushing them with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper). Top your pies with whatever ingredients you’re feeling, or just need to use up: mozzarella, a jar of roasted red peppers, mushrooms, onion and fennel, leftover greens and herbs, olives, that last bit of rotisserie chicken or slices of salami … you can’t go wrong.

Italian Flat Bread (Piadina) with Fontina and Prosciutto

Italian Flat Bread (Piadina) with Fontina and Prosciutto

Photo by: Tara Donne

Tara Donne

You say “pizza”; Giada De Laurentiis says “piadina.” Her take on Italian Flatbread (Piadina) with Fontina and Prosciutto, which is grilled to order at food stands throughout Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, take less than an hour to make — and that’s including the time it takes to make the flatbread dough and let it rest. Throw the flatbread on a grill pan, or a gas or charcoal grill, and then top it with an unbeatable combo of ricotta, fontina, prosciutto, basil and lemon zest.

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