Pizza is the ultimate crowd-pleaser, and being on the road and away from your favorite pizzeria shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a slice. There are many ways to cook a perfect pie right at the campground. Here are the ingredients you’ll need and the best ways to cook pizza in your RV, including our favorite campground pizza recipe.
Pizza Ingredients to Pack for Camping
Pizza Dough
You can find good quality, inexpensive pre-made pizza dough at just about any grocery store. Buy a few balls of dough to tuck in your refrigerator or cooler. This is the easiest way to get an authentic pizza experience with any method of cooking. Just make sure that you warm the dough to room temperature before shaping to make it easier to stretch your crust.
Pizza dough is also easy to make from scratch. You can make it ahead or at the campground. To bake pizza dough at your campsite, bring dry yeast and bread flour along with other staples like salt and olive oil.
Alton Brown created a reliable pizza dough recipe that you can make without a stand mixer, though it takes a bit more elbow grease to hand mix and knead. It’s doable and a fun job for the kids, too.
Pizza Sauce
For an easy, classic pizza sauce, you’ll need a large can of crushed tomatoes, minced garlic, and dried herbs like oregano and basil. Simmer together over a heat source for 20 to 30 minutes for a simple sauce to top with cheese and other toppings.
In lieu of making your own, there are also plenty of basic pizza sauces available at grocery stores. Punch up the flavor with some additional sauteed garlic and a pinch of extra herbs.
Cheese and Toppings
Have fun experimenting with your favorite toppings. For a classic pie, a bag of grated whole milk mozzarella is the perfect cheese to pair with your simple tomato sauce. Mix it up with BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce and add leftover grilled chicken to create a BBQ chicken pizza.
Go veggie and spread thinly-sliced produce on your pizza. Or, you can even have pizza for breakfast: Use soft scrambled eggs in place of the sauce and top with bacon, ham or sausage, and cheese.
How to Make Pizza in an RV Oven
If you have an oven in your RV, you have the quickest and easiest tool to bake a pizza. The best tip for making a perfect crust in an oven is to use a pizza stone. But since RV ovens are much smaller than a regular oven, you’ll want to make sure the stone fits.
Pizza stones come in plenty of sizes, so measure your rig’s oven and choose the pizza stone that will fit. A pizza stone is easy to store; just keep it in your oven. You can store it there even while cooking other dishes and use it for cooking more than just pizza.
How to Make Pizza on the Campfire
Another option for cooking pizza at your campsite is by baking it in a cast iron Dutch oven. A Dutch oven replicates the environment of an oven fairly well. Simply heat enough coals to warm your Dutch oven up to about 450 degrees. This requires 30 total coals with 10 coals placed under your Dutch oven and 20 coals placed on the lid.
Shape your dough into a pizza round and drop it into the bottom of a warmed Dutch oven. Cover your pizza with sauce, cheese, and toppings, place the cover on your Dutch oven, and let it bake for about 30 minutes. Your pizza is done once the dough is cooked through, slightly golden brown, and the cheese is melted.
7 Dutch Oven Recipes to Make at the RV Campground
How to Make Pizza on the Stovetop
Don’t have time to set up a Dutch oven? There are two ways to make pizza using a stovetop or propane-powered camp stove.
For a quick thin-crust pizza, simply use a large skillet and a flour tortilla. Warm the skillet up over medium-high heat. Toast one side of a large flour tortilla, flip it, and top with pizza sauce, cheese, and your favorite toppings.
Keep toasting until the bottom of the tortilla is crispy and the cheese has melted. With tortilla pizza, it’s important not to add too many toppings, or you’ll overwhelm the thin crust. A thin layer of sauce and a light sprinkle of cheese will satisfy any pizza craving.
If you have more time and a heavy cast iron skillet, you can bake regular pizza dough on the stovetop almost like a pancake. Heat your skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add a bit of olive oil to the pan. Shape your pizza dough into a thin round and place it in the skillet.
Cook until the first side is golden brown. Flip your pizza so the raw side can bake in the skillet and top the cooked side with your favorite toppings. Cook until the bottom of your pizza is golden brown and the cheese melted. Place a lid over the pan to help the cheese melt using steam.
How to Make Pizza in a Pizza Oven
Buying a portable, gas-fired pizza oven opens up a delicious world of pizza making at the campground. Our favorite is the Ooni Koda pizza oven, which weighs less than 25 pounds, is extremely portable, and connects directly to your RV’s propane tank.
The secret to restaurant-style pizza is a very high temperature and this pizza oven reaches temperatures of up to 932 degrees, which lets you cook a pizza in 60 seconds. You can also use it to roast any other meals that you normally make in an oven.
Other Ways to Make Pizza at the Campground
A high-quality gas or charcoal grill is another easy way to bake your pizza outside at the campground. Use a pizza stone, heat the grill to the highest possible temperature, and keep the cover closed to bake.
The Akorn Char-Griller Junior is a small, lightweight Kamado-style charcoal grill that reaches high temperatures due to its egg shape. It will heat to 700 degrees, which is far hotter than even a household oven.
Another option is Presto’s Pizzazz countertop pizza oven. This appliance has a cult following and more than 10,000 positive reviews on Amazon. For anyone wanting an indoor option for making pizza without an oven, this will do the trick. The oven heats from both the top and bottom to ensure a crispy crust and golden brown top. The Pizzazz is a convenient option for RVers who have reliable access to electricity.
Our Favorite Campground Pizza Recipe
While we don’t frown upon any method of making pizza while camping, our overall favorite way to bake pizza is the cast iron skillet method based on its ease and affordability.
Using the heat-retaining powers of cast iron and a flame from any source, campers can have pizza for dinner quickly and easily. We love this recipe and primer from The Kitchn: How to Make Pizza on the Stove Top.
Our Favorite Camp Pizza-Making Accessories
- Pizza Stone
- Pizza Cutter
- Pizza Peel (with detachable handle)
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