Grilled Pizza
This weekend I plan on celebrating summer’s unofficial arrival by walking around in bare feet, throwing back a few beers, and breaking out our trusty charcoal grill.
On the menu? Grilled pizza!
The inspiration for our summer kick-off comes courtesy of my wonderful guest blogger, Chassie from CB&J. Chassie’s food is simple, beautiful, and tasty, and her recipes do not have an ounce of holier-than-thou food snobbery. Nope. Chasssie is just a girl who like to cook and eat. Maybe that’s why I like her so much!
Enjoy the pizza, Chassie’s post, and her husband Steve’s lovely photo of their pizza-Q. I’ll be back on Tuesday with a growing guide for peppers ~ Willi
I am so excited to be a guest on Willi’s lovely blog. I spent weeks contemplating the perfect recipe. After all of the agonizing and testing dish after dish, I realized I was over thinking things. So, I decided to share one of our favorite foods…bar-b-qued pizza. We invited some of our friends over for an evening of beautiful weather, fresh squeezed lemonade, and a variety of pizzas straight from the grill.
BBQ and pizza may not be words you would traditionally find together, but believe me, they are a match made in foodie heaven. I’ve tried a variety of methods for cooking pizza dough, but that perfect crunchy, chewy, flavorful pizza crust was eluding me. It wasn’t until my very good friend, Chris, suggested I try a Martha method and throw the dough directly on the grill. No stone. No pan. Nothing. Sounded crazy, but I love to experiment with new techniques and the results were out of this world. It was like the pizza gods let me in on their little secret and I was hooked. The flavor is unbelievable – it reminds me of the pizza in Italy – the dough has a distinct earthy flavor and a crunchy outer shell with a tender core, plus it allows you to be outside and in front of the grill, and how fun is that?!
I also choose this recipe because it seemed very appropriate for this time of year. After a long winter full of too many root vegetables and not nearly enough fruit or grill time, Spring opens up her arms and gives us asparagus, artichokes, lettuce of all shapes and sizes, herbs, herbs and more herbs. So many goodies, but it is arugula that makes my heart beat fast and my mouth water for it’s peppery, lemony leaves of goodness.
Arugula is most often used in salads, but I love to use it in pasta, soups, and oils. Perhaps my favorite way to eat arugula is on a pizza with garlic, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, toasted pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese. The arugula adds an extra level of freshness that doesn’t usually come with a traditional pizza. This recipe works fabulously on a grilled dough. Place your ingredients on the dough, close the lid, let the cheese melt and voila! A quick, easy and delicious meal that will impress you and your guests.
Arugula and Roasted Red Pepper Pizza
To grill the dough, roll or stretch it to about a 12” circle/oblong shape. I can never really get a perfect circle, but then again I never try too hard because the funky shapes help give it that homemade touch. Turn your grill to a medium heat and spray with non-stick spray or brush it will olive oil. Place the dough directly on the grill grates and watch her start to crisp and pull away from the grates. Once the dough is a little firm, flip it over and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Flip the dough over a few times so it cooks evenly on both sides. Now turn the grill to low, add your toppings, close the lid, and cook until your toppings reach your desired doneness.
What you’ll need:
8 – 10 slices of good quality mozzarella cheese
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup shaved or grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive, plus extra for brushing
1/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers
small handful of toasted pine nuts
1-2 cups of fresh arugula leaves
Instructions:
Slowly heat the olive oil and garlic in a small sauté pan. Don’t let the garlic brown. You just want to cook it enough to infuse the olive oil with the garlic flavor. On medium to low heat this should take about a minute. Turn off heat and let stand.
Toast your pine nuts slowly in a pan. Don’t walk away. These babies can burn quick! Toast until light brown and fragrant.
Now arrange all of your ingredients on a tray or cooking sheet and carry it to the grill. When your dough is almost done cooking, add your ingredients. Brush the garlic olive oil onto the dough making sure you get every little bit of garlic. Next add the mozzarella slices, then the arugula, red peppers, pine nuts and Parmesan. Let it cook until the cheese is melty and the arugula is slightly wilted.
This is great as a main course or an appetizer. For more ideas, check out my blog. You’ll find my pizza dough recipe and see the other combos we did at our Pizza-Q. Have fun and enjoy! ~ Chassie
[...] recipe goes hand in hand with another recipe that Willi of the wonderful blog, DigginFood is posting from me this week (!!!). I was so excited that she asked me to be a guest because I love [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 amWe’ve been grilling pizza since the snow melted off our deck. It’s the best way to cook pizza in my opinion.
Off to make some pizza dough…
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 amWonderful guest blogger! You should have her back again sometime.
Love the Digging Food blog! Keep up the great work!
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 amI have been wanting to try the grilled pizza, we have nearly perfected cooking fantastic pizza on a stone… now off to the grill!! Looks Great!
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:48 pmanother idea to use up my over abundance of arugula that is ready in the garden this week!!
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 pmBlah, blah, blah. Check out the pizza recipe on our website. Pizza is an advanced technique on a charcoal grill. Plan on getting it right on your third or fourth try. It’s sort of like Julia Child’s advice on learning how to make an omelette… someday when you are not hungry, buy two dozen eggs. This will make eight three-egg omelettes. You are going to throw away these eight omelettes…. etc.. etc…. So you spent five dollars and your learned an invaluable skill. Good enough?
Don’t start with pizza. The grill will rust away in the backyard. Charcoal grilling is an art. Give it some time and attention.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pmChassie – Beautiful pictures, wonderful recipe and I really like the toasted pine nuts addition. I added them to banana yeast bread today. Yummy! Hope you come back again soon. Thanks for inviting her Willi. We are so blessed to have such talented young women willing to share their skills.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 pmha! we were gonna make pizza tonight on our charcoal grill and happened to check out willi’s site while the dough was rising! awesome timing since we had no clue how to grill a pizza! thanks for the timely blog. the -second- pizza turned out great
May 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pmbeautiful pictures and great recipe. you make my mouth water
May 25th, 2009 at 1:42 pmAll I can say is yum. Just had something off the grill which was also yum. (Angus Burger, anyone?
La Marquise des Anges sent me your way.
Love digginfood.com
May 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pm-kelley
myislandwedding.com
Oh my gosh, that looks delish! My mouth is watering… must try this as soon as the rain stops!
May 26th, 2009 at 10:45 amThis entry inspired my Memorial Day barbecue. I used a dough recipe from my very favorite bread book (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day) and topped it with some leftover grilled chicken, fresh basil, grilled asparagus and an assortment of goat and sheep’s milk cheeses picked up at the Cheese Festival last weekend to make an outstanding pizza. Thanks for the inspiration!
May 27th, 2009 at 6:32 pmThanks for the inspiration! The weather was perfect for the dough to rise in the afternoon sun. And our pizza was topped with a pecan arugula pesto (from the garden), mushrooms, peppers and mozz cheese. It may have been the best pizza I have ever tasted!
May 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pmI am so glad that Chassie’s post inspired so many meals over the past week! Marina, I will have to try the dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day. Love that book!
May 28th, 2009 at 12:17 pmYummy! I’m going to try this next time we go to the countryside!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:05 pmI tried this this evening and while it may not have turned as pretty as your pizzas, Willi, they were definitely tasty! They looked more thick crusted than your pictures, but the dough still cooked all the way through and did not burn and were definitely yummy. So thanks for the inspiration. I will definitely make this again!
May 29th, 2009 at 11:07 pmthank you all for the wonderful comments! I’m so happy that it inspired you to try something new. I’m so honored that Willi had me a guest. Keep cooking and throw anything you can on the grill – the results are almost always delightful.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:56 am[...] a Boca burger really isn’t all that fun so instead we’ve branched out into the world of grilling pizza, fruit for salads, halloumi cheese and heads of romaine but I’m pretty sure we hit the jackpot [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 8:32 amJust tried your recipe and it was amazing! Seriously the best Pizza ever. Thank you for your step by step. I hope to see more.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:18 amGrilled pizza is one of my favorite foods! Makes me excited for warmer weather, so we can make it again!!
January 14th, 2011 at 8:09 am.-= Kori´s last blog ..Penzeys Spices =-.
Substitute Naan for the pizza dough and you will be amazed! Put it on the grill, heat till edges brown, flip over and top with your ingredients. Remove when cheese melts and enjoy!
September 7th, 2011 at 10:57 pmJens–I am trying this. Stat! Sounds so good
September 12th, 2011 at 5:41 pm