Grilled French Bread Pizza Supreme

Photo from Butter
Your Biscuit

Mom and Dad both taught me how to cook, and while they each had their own style in the kitchen, there was one piece of advice they agreed on completely: always read the recipe before you start cooking. Then read it again.

For the most part, I don't follow that advice anymore. I used to be diligent about it, and if a recipe looks especially complicated or requires a lot of planning, I'll still give it a thorough read-through. But on a typical weeknight? I tend to dive right in. Every now and then, that comes back to bite me.

Case in point: tonight's French bread pizzas.

I'm honestly not sure how I missed it—it's right there in the title—but these were supposed to be grilled. That definitely did not happen in my kitchen. Instead, I treated them like any other pizza and baked them in the oven.

That decision came with an extra challenge because I wasn't working with a traditional sturdy French loaf. One of our pizzas was made on gluten-free bread, and if you've ever had gluten-free bread, you know how delicate it can be. It seems like they'll crumble if you look at them the wrong way.

Still, Blueberry and I carried on and made our oven-baked version of French bread pizza.

The result? It was good, but for me French bread pizza just isn't my favorite style of pizza. For me, the bread-to-topping ratio was a little off. I prefer a thinner crust, and the loaf I used was quite thick, making the finished pizza feel a bit too bready.

For anyone else who accidentally skips the grilling instructions, baking worked just fine. I popped the pizzas into a 400°F oven for about 10 minutes, just until the cheese was melted, bubbly, and lightly browned.

Would I make them again? Maybe. But next time, I'd either use a thinner loaf or actually follow the recipe and fire up the grill.

Grilled French Bread Pizza Supreme

Recipe from Butter Your Biscuit

Serves 4

• 1 loaf soft french bread
• 3 cups of pizza sauce; I'm a big fan of Rao's 
• 2-3 garlic cloves minced
• 2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 pkg pepperoni 40-50 pepperoni
• 2 cups cooked Italian sausage
• 1 cup olives sliced
• 1/2 cup green pepper diced; I sooo didn't include this.
• 1/2 cup red pepper diced; nor this one, blech
• 1/2 cup onion diced
• Parmesan cheese

Heat grill to lowest flame

Cut your french bread in half lengthwise, spread the pizza sauce evenly over the french bread. sprinkle fresh garlic over sauce and then sprinkle cheese. Add the pepperoni, sausage, olives, peppers and onions.

Place each half french bread onto a large piece of foil and loosely wrap around edges.

Grill over indirect heat for 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. (keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn).

Garnish with Parmesan cheese and serve!