Pizza is one of the best foods to make for a group of friends; it’s great for accommodating people’s individual taste preferences, not to mention that it’s perfect with a glass of wine. And while people don’t often think of it as a dish that can be made on the grill, we’re here to tell you it can, and that it’s delicious. This video shows you how easy making pizza on the grill can be, and teaches you a few hacks – including using the wine bottle as your rolling pin – to cut down on your prep time and save you from buying unnecessary equipment. Once you see how easy it is to make grilled pizza, we have a feeling you’ll be using your grill as a pizza oven all summer long.

VinePair Approved Margarita Pizza

Premade Pizza Dough (Buy bag, cut in half)
5-6 Slices Mozz
Fresh Basil
Favorite Sauce
Olive Oil

Preheat grill on high. Open bottle of wine to accompany your cooking – trust us, this is an important step.

Take purchased pizza dough, cut dough in half. By doing this, the dough will fit easier on the grill and will cook more evenly. With a generous amount of flour, roll out pizza dough into disks (we used our bottle of Viña Zaco instead of a rolling pin). Brush olive oil on one side of the crust and the grates of your grill.

Place pizza dough on grill, oil side down. Close the lid, and let the crust cook for about 5 minutes. Take a sip of wine. Head back to the grill. When you open the lid, you should see bubbles that have begun to form in the dough. Quickly brush the non-oiled side of the dough with olive oil and flip the crust over.

Once you’ve begun grilling the other side of your pizza crust, add your favorite marinara sauce and slices of fresh Mozzarella. Close the grill to let the cheese melt. After about five minutes (taking more sips of wine in between), add fresh basil to the top and grill for another two minutes with the lid of the grill closed. This will allow the basil to wilt as well as blend with the other flavors.

After those two minutes, take your pizza off the grill, open a bottle of Rioja, and bask in the summer weather.