Pizza On The Grill

I have been singing the praises of this grilled pizza recipe for some time now, and now I'm sharing it with you. Thus far every attempt has been successful, and I've never been able to say that in regard to anything involving yeast. Until now. I've also included a recipe for a complete pizza. Hope it works as well for you!

These recipes are from The Best of Fine Cooking - Grilling.

Basic Pizza Dough
Yields about 1 lb., enough for 2 pizza crusts

1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for oiling bowl
1 1/2 tsp. sugar or honey
2 1/4 tsp. (1/4-oz. packet) active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus extra as needed
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

If your kitchen is cool, preheat the oven to 150F or the lowest setting.

Put 1 cup of lukewarm water into the work bowl of a large food processor or stand mixer. Sprinkle the oil, sugar, and yeast over the water and pulse several times until mixed. Add the flour and salt and process until the mixture comes together. the dough should be soft and slightly sticky. (If it is very sticky, add flour, 1 Tbs. at a time, and pulse until smooth. If it is too stiff, add water, 1 Tbs. at a time, and pulse until smooth.) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface; knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball.

Put the dough in an oiled clean bowl, turn it over several times in the bowl to coat it with oil, drizzle a little oil over the top, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot or turn off the oven and stick it in there. Let rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 15 minutes in the oven or 1 hour in the warm spot.

Punch the dough down and knead on a lightly floured surface for 1 to 2 minutes, until smooth. Divide into two equal-size balls and proceed with your pizza making.

Greens on White Pizza
Serves 2 as a main course; 4 as an appetizer

1/4 cup uncooked cornmeal, for rolling the dough
1 ball (8 oz.) prepared pizza dough, at room temperature (recipe above)
2 Tbs. olive oil, plus extra to drizzle on the arugula
1/2 cup Roasted Garlic Paste (recipe below)
2/3 cup grated mozzarella cheese
2/3 cup grated Asiago cheese
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1-2 tsp. white truffle oil
1 cup fresh arugula (ideally baby arugula)
4 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto
fleur de sel or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat your grill. (For gas, set to high with lid closed for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to medium. For charcoal, once briquettes have become gray-ashed, move them all to one side of the grill.)

Sprinkle your work surface with the cornmeal. Place the dough in the middle of the surface. You can either roll out the dough with a rolling pin, stretch it out with your hands, or press it out from the center against the work surface. Ideally, you want a 12-inch, organically shaped piece of sough--round, square, or rectangular--1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Drizzle or brush both sides generously with the 2 Tbs. olive oil.

Grill the first side of the crust. Lay dough down flat--over the side without briquettes, if you're using charcoal--on the cooking grate. Close the lid and grill for 3 minutes, then rotate the crust 180 degrees and continue grilling until the bottom is well marked and evenly browned, another 2 to 3 minutes.

Flip the crust to reveal the grilled side. Spread the entire surface with the garlic paste, then top with the mozzarella and Asiago, and spoon dollops of teh ricotta over all. Finish grilling the pizza with the lid down, 4 to 5 minutes, another 180 degree turn, then another 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove from the grill and drizzle with some of the truffle oil. Drizzle the arugula lighly with olive oil and toss, then place immediately on top of pizza (so that the heat of the pizza wilts it). Arrange the prosciutto on top and season with salt and pepper. Slice and serve immediately.

Roasted Garlic Paste
Yields enough for 1 pizza; about 1/2 cup

3 heads garlic
3 Tbs. olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
kosher salt

Heat the oven to 400F. Remove the first layer of papery skin from the garlic. Slice off 1/4 inch from the pointy top. Place each head on a sheet of foil, cut side up. Drizzle with the oil and season with salt. Wrap each head int eh foil and roast until the cloves are golden brown and soft, about 1 hour. Remove from the heat and let cool. (You can also do this on the grill, cooking over indirect heat.)

Remove the roasted cloves by squeezing the whole head from the bottom. Using a fork, vigorously mix the garlic and oil together. Add a pinch of salt. If not using right away, refrigerate it, tightly covered, for up to 2 days.

7 weeks to go...

the waiting is the hardest part

who are these lovely people, enjoying the glow of street lamps at 2:30 in the morning? my dear, dear, willing to sleep on the sidewalk in nyc with me for the sake of free shakespeare in the park tickets and then didn't even complain when we didn't get tickets and were late for our tour at the Met friends.

for those of you who have not been to shakespeare in the park - here's the lowdown. everysummer the nyc public theatre puts on a production of a shakespeare play. this summer's play was Twelfth Night with Anne Hathaway plaing Viola. the play is free, but you must have a ticket to get into it. they hand out tickets beginning at 1p the day of the performance. the park opens at 6a. so, after having heard that it's tough to get tickets, zane, saje & i decided to get a head start. we left the house at midnight & drove down to manhattan. we figured nobody would be there yet, so we'd go grab coffee & sleep in the car to pass the time until 6a. however, to our chagrin, when we arrived at central park west & 81st street (the gate to the park, and the beginning of the line), we were not alone. in fact, we had to walk to 87th street (6 blocks!) just to get to the back of the line.

we played cards & read parts of the play & slept until 6a when the park opened. then the line (in order) was marched into the park to continue waiting in line. we continued playing cards, reading the play and sleeping until 12:45 when we were instructed to get up & stand in single file line to receive tickets. at approximately 1:25, with 200ish people still in front of us, we were told that they were out of tickets.

we didn't get to see the best shakespeare in the park performance in years. at least we got to sleep on the sidewalk. so we got that goin' for us.

the valuable invisible stuff

it's possible that everyone in the world already knows this, and i think i already knew it too, but i had the lesson driven home to me this morning.

i've ridden my bike a handful of times since being reunited with it in may. and it has been hard!! i think to myself as i struggle up what seem like brobdingnagian blocks: "i can't have gotten this weak over the course of one winter - what is wrong w/ me?!?!?!" this morning, as i pulled out of the driveway, i noticed that both of my tires were pretty low on air. i rode up to the gas station and shelled out 50 cents for air. smartest money i've ever spent. it was as if a weight had been lifted off of my bike. riding is now, dare i say, enjoyable. i dropped off mail at the post office, took a cruise down by the river, explored a little section of neighbourhood - it was wonderful!

and now for the lesson: i thought to myself, as i cruised effortlessly around town, imagine how much energy your car wastes when your tires are not properly inflated. and i made a mental note to be better at checking the tire pressure in my car's tires, thereby maximizing my mileage. kudos to me. :)

roommate vs. roommate: round 2

roommate vs. roommate: round 1

cue the jeffersons theme song...

"we're movin' on up, to the east side (actually a few blocks west), to a deluxe apartment in the sky (deluxe is subjective and we're on the 2nd floor, but it's the right direction)"

okay, so we probably don't need our own theme song, but the move is pretty exciting!! not only is it a nicer place, but my parents (you guys are the best!) came out for the weekend (actually Friday - Thursday), more like a week, and made it phenomenal! we have custom paint on the walls (shout out to s&j) and fancy-schmancy electrical (shout out to brooklyn eletrical). nathan installed a beautiful ceiling fan in the living room - it looks pretty & circulates air - i love technology. we have a "den" - more likely a living room, but we're using it as a den - and i no longer have to work in my bedroom. i'll have to get up like 40 seconds earlier now that my commute is longer. hehehe... bonus: upstairs neighbours are sisters and downstairs neighbours are culinary institute students. score! you can tour vicariously by watching the video, but seriously, come visit for real! we'd love it!!