First, get a good bed of coals going in your fire ring. You don’t want to cook anything over a campfire with lots of flames; you’ll just end up charring your food without cooking it properly.

Next, get your pizza dough ready. Easy pizza dough recipes are a Google search away, or you can just buy some pre-made pizza dough from a local bakery or grocery store and bring it with you.

Then, figure out how you want to cook the pizza. We recommend using a cast iron skillet or pan, but you can cook pizza directly on a fire ring grate if one is available. Many cooks recommend briefly cooking both sides of the dough before you put on the toppings. Oil the pan, pop in the dough and place the pan on the grate about eight inches above the hot coals. Flip the dough after a few minutes and cook the other side.

Now comes the fun part. Take the dough off the fire, bring the kids over and start adding your toppings. Pre-shredded cheese and canned pizza sauce are the easiest to deal with in the outdoors. Also be sure to chop your toppings into similar sized pieces so they all take about the same time to cook.

Put the pizza back on the grate or in the coals and cover it with foil so the cheese melts and the toppings cook. Be sure to vent or remove the lid about halfway through the cooking process so that the pizza doesn’t get soggy.

After 10 minutes or so (or once the cheese is melted and the toppings are cooked), pull the pizza off the fire and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

Slice it up and enjoy!

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All photos by Greg M. Peters.

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