grilled pizza with kale and prosciutto

is it too hot to cook indoors where you live? make some pizza on your barbeque grill, man! it’s easy and tasty, and you won’t have to heat up that oven to it’s max temp. also, you might just Food Destroy at the next cookout you go to — pizza, instead of hot dogs or ribs? heck yeah. mix it up!

i love pizza, i love it a lot. i can’t bear for the entire summer to pass by without making a lot of it at home, so the grilled version is my jam these days.

a small, portable gas grill is what suits our loft-living situation, and it was a little tricky to get the hang of grilling pizza dough to a nice doneness without over-charring over a gas flame. if you have a charcoal grill or a smoker, you will have even more control over temperature. my mom bakes amazing pizzas on an old pan in her smoker for about 15 minutes. epic and so flavorful! my gas grill gets these babies cooked in about 7 minutes total, so experiment with your grill.

start with a hearty pizza dough, such Jim Lahey’s (amazing and simple) No-Knead Pizza Dough with half the all-purpose flour swapped for whole wheat (link to recipe below). i’ve found it holds up better to grilling than the same dough made of all white flour. use a light hand with the toppings, and the possibilities are limitless! below is a flavor combo we’ve tried: the kale gets crisp and crackly like kale chips, and the prosciutto is a wonderful smokey contrast that also crisps up a bit (kinda like bacon). the pie in these pictures didn’t have any red sauce, and i honestly thought it was a bit dry without, so i noted that in the recipe. try your favorite pizza flavors — fire up your grillz!

• pizza dough, store-bought or homemade (such as Jim Lahey’s no-knead pizza dough, which makes enough for 4 – 6 pizzas depending on size and thickness of crust. try swapping half whole-wheat flour for the all-purpose!)
• big stems of kale from a bunch
• olive oil
• crushed tomatoes, or a favorite marinara sauce
• as much or as little mozerella cheese as you prefer (low-moisture works best), grated
• prosciutto (cured, thinly-sliced pork), torn into pieces
• coarse salt and ground pepper

first, after making sure the kale is clean and dry, drizzle leaves lightly with olive oil and toss/massage with your fingers to evenly coat. sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper and grill until lightly browned, flipping once. when cool, remove tough stems and chop or tear kale into bite-sized pieces. set aside.

take one pizza’s-worth portion of dough and begin to stretch it gently in your hands, letting gravity help do the work. give it rests occasionally if it resists.

when it’s the size and thickness you prefer, place it directly onto lightly-oiled grill grates, over medium-high heat. watch carefully; when underside is browned, use tongs to remove it to a cutting board or other portable prep surface. spread browned side of dough (raw side down) with tomatoes or marinara, cheese, and then prosciutto and kale. brush edges of crust with olive oil; sprinkle everything with salt and pepper (depending on how salty your prosciutto is). slide carefully back onto grill, and cook with lid closed until cheese is bubbling and underside is browned and crisp.

enjoy!

bacon, pear and gorgonzola pizza

i’ve been making pizza at home for a long time.

i have not mastered The Pizza yet.

but my pies taste good. and it’s ok with me if i keep trying, and my husband and i keep taste-testing…. you know, all for the benefit of my readers. we sacrifice a lot for y’all. and i think i’m getting closer to the perfect crust for a home oven!

bacon is something i pretty much always have on hand — probably you do, too. it makes a nice pizza topping because of it’s fantastic crunch and smokey, salty bite. after it’s been chopped up and browned all crackly, it isn’t one of those canadian-bacon-like toppings that pulls off the slice when you bite into it, slapping you on the chin with searing-hot pizza sauce. it’s bite-sized, so it’s a good topping. i think it pairs well here with some gently-sweet pears, a fresh mozerella and a zingy blue cheese, topped with thin rounds of red onion. i made this for a sunny saturday lunch… and then i made another. it was so tasty! even though i’ve talked about pizza before, and i’m sure i will again, i wanted to share my new-found shortcut for super-fast pizza any old time.

this is an awesome pizza dough that just requires stirring some stuff together, and then leaving it alone. you can make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks! snip off a chunk of dough for homemade pizza whenever. it’s easy… almost too easy. it kind of rules.

also, if you’ve never used mexican cheese on a pizza before, you should try it. you can get queso oaxaca at most supermarkets — it comes in a package looking like pulled taffy, piled up,  hand-stretched into long strings. i love it because it’s an awesome melting cheese! you can leave it in chunks or pull thin strings to put on your pie. it’s a mild white cow’s milk cheese that tastes a lot like mozerella.

make-ahead olive oil pizza dough

from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François

• 7 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose)
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 1/4 cups lukewarm water

Stir together the dry ingredients, then add olive oil and water. Stir to thoroughly combine, and let rest on the counter for about 2 hours before using, in a not-quite air-tight container (leave a lid on loose, or use plastic wrap with a vent on one side). Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

This batch of dough makes us about 7 pizzas but your yield will depend on the size you make your pies. This dough seems really wet when you first pull it out of the container, so keep some extra flour nearby for your hands and for stretching and shaping and you’ll be fine.

bacon, pear and gorgonzola pizza

i’m not going to tally ingredient amounts here, because if you’re like me you don’t stand around weighing cheese or measuring sauce for making pizza. but do use a light hand on the toppings or your pie could become weighted down and soggy. 

• pizza dough
• tomato sauce
• about 4 slices bacon; chopped, browned and drained on paper towels
• fresh mozerella, cut into 1-inch chunks, or queso oaxaca, pulled into strings
• 1/2 red anjou pear, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/4 medium red onion, very thinly sliced, thick outer layers and smallest inner layers discarded
• gorgonzola cheese

First things first: preheat your oven to it’s hottest possible setting (usually 500 degrees) with a pizza stone or tile on the bottom-most rack (see my previous pizza post for more about pizza stones/tiles). Let the stone preheat for about 30 minutes while you assemble your pie.

Pull about an 8-ounce piece of dough off from the big batch. Plop it onto a big square of parchment paper. Using flour sparingly as needed to keep from sticking, pat into a thin circle. Don’t pull too much or the dough will tear — give it little rests here and there and it will stretch for you.

Slide your dough on it’s parchment onto the pre-heated pizza stone, using an upside-down or rimless baking sheet as a transferring device. Par-bake for about 8 minutes.

Bring the par-baked crust back to your work surface, and, working quickly, top with sauce, then mozerella chunks, bacon, pear slices and onion slices. Slide back onto the stone and bake until crust is crisped and browned and cheese is bubbling, about 10 minutes.

Crumble gorgonzola on top of finished pie, and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing.

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This pizza is delicious with just mozerella, bacon and onions, too!…….

leftovers rating: A

because cold pizza is delicious.