Grilled Pizza

So where were we? Grilled pizza, right. Well, this wasn't our first foray into the world of grilled pizza, but it was our first successful attempt. Nothing too horrific happened the first time. The dough didn't fall between the grates and into the coals; there was no pizza on fire or anything like that. The pizza turned out . . . just not well; not crispy enough, nothing exciting or terribly delicious. And, quite happy with the pizza done on our oven stone, we never went back. But Giada was on the Today Show the morning of the Fourth of July and she was grilling steak. That caught my attention because we had planned to make steak too. For an appetizer she broke out some flat breads and proceeded to grill and top them with interesting things like prosciutto and ricotta. She called them Piadini. Hmmm... I thought to myself. I could pull this off today without much trouble. I've got some pizza dough balls in the freezer and always an interesting assortment of cheeses in the fridge. So the day passed with a parade and playing outside and the dough balls defrosted.

When it came time to start the coals for dinner, I shaped the dough into little pizzas. This is just my standard pizza dough recipe which will make four pizzas. But, instead of using my regular size ball to make one 12-inch pizza, I divided it in half to make smaller ones. This made the dough much easier to move from board to grill when it is stretched out. We sprayed it with olive oil and put it on a hot fire. When it was brown, we flipped it and topped it, closed the grill and let the topping heat through and the bottom brown.

Instead of a margherita pizza with fresh sliced tomato and fresh mozzerella, I used a sun dried tomato pesto (Cibo brand) and fresh sliced mozz. We like the pesto better because it had so much pronounced flavor, it stood up well to the grilled dough. For our second pizza, we used a smaller amount of the pesto, then some small diced leftover grilled veg. (onions, peppers, and zucchini from our previous night's dinner) and dollops of goat cheese. This one we really liked too. The grilled flavor veggies complimented the grilled flat bread and creamy goat cheese pulled it all together. We topped both cooked pizzas with some chopped basil from the garden. (I love summer!)

And I can't resist showing you the mesclun salad mix you get from Henry's Farmstand at Evanston Farmers Market. They put flowers in it. Isn't is great?

Pizza with a Twist

Smoked Salmon is so delicious and festive around this time of year. But we eat it all year long because it can be the makings of a quick dinner and it is somewhat healthy. Well, not when you first slather the toast with creme fraiche. This night we used a pizza crust for the base of our smoked salmon dinner. I think it was Wolfgang Puck, the famous California chef, who introduced nouveau pizza back in the '80s. It's been around for a long time but it still nice to have pizza with a twist. Dear husband, the purist, prefers toast points but this was fun, especially when we referred to it as "fish pizza." Yeah, that didn't exactly enhance the boys' desire to taste it. Those are capers and chives sprinkled over the top.

A Good Product

I used Stonewall Kitchen's Roasted Garlic and Onion jam as the "sauce" to make a goat cheese pizza. I can think of so many uses for this jam. I think it would make a really nice glaze if brushed on grilled pork tenderloin or chicken. Or serve it with brie and crackers. The only problem I might anticipate is that the sweetness might make dry wine taste funny. So choose your wine carefully.

Small cheese

Having a dough ball in the freezer can save you when other dinner plans fall through.

Pizzahh ...

I love Marguerita pizza: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil on a crispy crust. Lately, I've been playing around with my pizza dough recipe. This one is from Bread Baker's Apprentice, a book held in high regard by the bread bakers that I know. The recipe does turn out a nice dough (and crust,) but it is somewhat sticky and must be started a day in advance. I don't think the results are that much better than my usual recipe (from Fine Cooking, of course) which can be made the day of cooking and is much, much more user friendly.

Really though, good results are due to the hot pizza stone (and quality toppings) and not the dough. You could use store-bought pizza dough and it would work fine.

Goat Cheese Pizza

We make homemade pizza often. This is our favorite combination of fresh goat cheese and Mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and basil. This recipe is from James McNair's Pizza cookbook. The dough comes from Fine Cooking issue 49 which also includes a goat cheese pizza recipe on the cover. The recipes are similar but we prefer James McNair's which has the additional mozzarella. The sun-dried tomatoes look black in the photo, but they really aren't. This pizza was so, so good.