Monday, August 22, 2011

Grilled Pizza (with farmer's market vegetables)

If you've never made pizza on the grill, you'll be surprised how easy it is. Even better, you can do a lot of the work ahead of time. When you want to eat, just top the prepared crust and pop it onto the grill to crisp up and to warm the toppings.

When you're making pizza on the grill one thing to keep in mind is that the bottom cooks a lot faster than the top. So when you choose your toppings, either use things that are fully cooked, or go with things that will taste good mostly raw.

For these, I used tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted peppers, and goat cheese. I cheated a little on the roasted peppers - I bought them pre-roasted and bagged at the farmers market, so all I had to do was clean them.

If you want to roast your own peppers, it's a simple task - just roast them - on the grill or directly on a gas burner on your stove - until the skin is charred and blackened, then put them in a plastic bag. By the time they're cool enough to handle, you'll be able to peel the skin off. Then just remove the stem and seeds and they're ready to use.

These pizzas would make a nice light lunch, or cut them in wedges and serve as an appetizer.

Grilled Pizza
Makes 4 small pizzas

Dough:

1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup cool water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Put the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in the bowl of your food processor, fitted with the dough blade. Pulse a couple times to distribute the ingredients. Turn the processor on and add the water slowly through the feed tube - just as fast as the flour can absorb it - until the dough forms a ball. You might not need every last drop of the water.

Continue processing until the dough is smooth and stretchy, another 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Drizzle the oil in a plastic zip-top bag and place the dough in the bag, making sure that the oil coats the dough completely.

If you will be using the dough within an hour or so, you can leave it on your counter. Otherwise, store it in the refrigerator until you need it. You can make it the day before, if it's more convenient. It can last up to 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

About an hour before you will be using the dough, remove it from the refrigerator and give it a little massage, still in the bag, releasing any air in the bag and sealing it again when you're done.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Divide it into 4 roughly equal pieces, and form each piece into a ball, then flatten the ball. Roll it to a thin disk about 8 inches in diameter - about the size of a flour tortilla.

Cook the dough directly on the grill grates - don't worry it won't fall through. As soon as the dough is on the grill, close the lid, count to 20 - slowly, and then check the dough. It should have grill marks on the bottom and have bubbles beginning to form on top. Flip the dough over and cook for another 10 seconds, then take the dough off the grill.

To make the pizzas:

You can choose whatever toppings you like, but it should either be fully cooked or be something that's good raw but gently warmed. For mine, I chose:

Thinly sliced fresh tomatoes
Thinly sliced brown mushrooms
Strips of roasted poblano peppers
Fresh goat cheese
Olive oil

Place the topping on the pizzas, drizzle with a little olive oil, then place the on the grill over medium to low heat. Cover the grill and them them cook until the toppings are warmed and the bottom of the pizza is crisp. If the bottom browns too quickly, move the pizzas to a cooler part of the grill and cover the grill again until the toppings are warmed to your liking.

Serve warm.
Yum

1 comment:

mjskit said...

I love grilled pizza and this one looks simple and delicious! It's chile season here in the southwestern US, so great pizza for using NM green chiles!

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