Thursday, February 23, 2012

Be a chef week - grilled pizzas



This is a family favorite in our house.  And by family I mean, my husband and I really love these pizzas.  Who would ever think that making your own pizza dough would be so easy?  And honestly the tastiest pizza dough ever.

It's as easy as mix, knead, rise and grill.  

The pizza dough recipe is from my dear friend Ina.  You might have heard of her.  You can see how she does it HERE.  I do everything the same as she does until it comes time for the cooking.

In her recipe, she only uses the garlic oil on her pizzas.  I like to cover mine in pizza sauce.  I am not a fan of sauce-less pizza, so I sauce it up.

Follow her recipe, but here are a few tried and true tips:

- Make the garlic oil that she mentions.  It is one of the things that makes this pizza special.  Here's how:

Bring 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil and 6 large garlic cloves to a boil, once it's boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Carefully remove the garlic and slice it into a bowl.  Pour the oil over the garlic.  Rather than sprinkling it over the top like Ina mentions, I brush this on the pizza just before I put on the sauce.  And my best secret is to sprinkle the garlic slices over the sauce as your first topping.  Mmmm.

- DON'T skip the step of letting the dough rest an additional 10 minutes after you have separated it into shaped balls.  I know it's tempting to just start flattening it out and get going, but don't do it.  If you let it rest that additional 10 minutes, it will be pillowy and soft and so delicious.

- We have a gas grill, so I just keep the grill as low as it will go for the entire time I'm cooking them.

- I freeze the dough balls that we don't use.  They don't turn out as amazing when you take them out of the freezer, but they are still really yummy!  Just make sure they come to room temp. before you start trying to shape them.

- Have fun with your toppings!  This particular night, I was a little lazy with the toppings because usually we pile them high with anything and everything you can imagine.  Get crazy, it's your very own grilled pizza so top it with whatever the heck you like.  But I do HIGHLY recommend using fresh mozzarella.

ENJOY!  It is a perfect Friday night dinner!

And here's a behind the scenes picture for your viewing enjoyment...

What do you do when your grilling at night and your porch light is out?  Well, you obviously put on your husband's head lamp.  Duh.  Nice head lamp lady.



2 comments:

  1. That's it I'm coming over for dinner. You were warned.

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  2. hahahah.. I've told Matt I want to go camping again just so I can wear a head lamp. Never thought about night grilling. I like that idea better :)

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