Gallery: How to Grill Pizza Indoors

Step 1: Puff, Puff, Flip

Allow a 4-ounce ball of your favorite homemade or store-bought pizza dough to rise in an oiled container for an hour and a half at room temperature, then stretch it out on a well-floured surface. Preheat your grill pan over high heat until it just begins to smoke, then transfer the pizza dough to the pan. Brush the top surface with two teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil combined with a clove of minced garlic. Season with salt. Allow it to cook until large bubbles start forming on the top surface, about 2 minutes total, rotating the crust 45 to 90 degrees half way through cooking.

Step 2: Cook the Second Side

Flip the crust over so that the bubbled side is now facing down. Press gently around the edges and center of the crust with a spatula to ensure that it gets decent contact with the grill pan's bars. Cook until the second side is cooked and darkly charred in spots, about 2 minutes longer.

Step 3: Re-crisp the bottom

Flip the crust over again so that the original top side is now the top side again.

At this point, the pizza should still be reasonably pliable, and would make an excellent flatbread or wrap.

Reduce the heat to medium to finish cooking and re-crisping the bottom while you top the pie.

Step 4: Top it Off

Spread about an ounce and a half of grated cheese (any good melting cheese like mozzarella or fontina) in a thin, even layer over the top of the crust. Spoon tomato sauce over the cheese in dollops, and distribute toppings around the pie. Bear in mind that unlike on an oven-baked pizza, toppings will not do much more than heat through on a grilled pizza. Anything that needs cooking should be pre-cooked.

Step 5: Crispy and Puffy

Let your pizza cook until the cheese is melted through and the bottom has developed deep char-marks, about a minute longer, then transfer the pizza to a cutting board and serve. If all goes well, your cornicione will be puffy and blistered, and the bottom crust will be crisp and chewy.

This particular pie was topped with anchovies and thin-sliced scallions. Delicious.

Step 6: The Undercarriage

As you can see, no tip-sag problems, nice deep char, and a crisp texture.

In a hot, NY summer apartment, it don't get much better than this.