Tragically, you have yet to set up shop here in Columbia, but whenever we are in the vicinity of one of your Southeastern stores (thank you for Athens, Greenville, and Charlotte), we make a detour to stock up, buying five or six bags of dough at a time. Then we throw it in the freezer, where it keeps perfectly until pizza night.
During CSA season, pizza night often comes once a week. It's a particular favorite for the day that we pick up our box, because you can put almost anything on a pizza with delicious results. Last year, we went weeks where our box brought us heaps and heaps of zucchinis and yellow crookneck squash, which in turn led us to this fantastic (and legitimately "superfast") vegetarian pizza recipe from Bon Appetit, reprinted below. We've since used this recipe as the base for just about any kind of pizza imaginable and I've included some of our favorite variations below, as well.
Just last night, we decided, for the first time, to try this pizza dough on the grill. I adjusted the recipe some for grilling and think the results were among the best we've had. (But to be fair, I can't remember a bad pizza night. That would be like an episode of Veronica Mars not worth watching. Inconceivable.)
Here is the recipe from Bon Appetit, with my editorial comments. It is also available in all of its original glory at epicurious.com.
Superfast Vegetarian Pizza
1 tbs olive oil
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium yellow crookneck squash, diced
1/2 tbs dried crushed red pepper
Pizza crust (recipe calls for Boboli crust, I use TJ's)
1 14-oz jar mushroom pizza sauce (I use pizza or pasta sauce and saute sliced mushrooms in the sauce--adds a bit more time but you really get the fresh mushroom flavor that way)
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup packed mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz)
1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or to whatever temp advised by the directions on the pizza crust package). Heat oil in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini, yellow squash and crushed red pepper; saute until vegetables are almost tender, about 5 minutes.
Place pizza crust on baking sheet (if you are using TJ's, you will have to roll out first -- when we bake it in the oven, we make a big rectangle shaped pizza on a lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet). Spread mushroom sauce over. Sprinkle with garlic, then mozzarella. Top with squash mixture and tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake pizza until cheese melts and crust is crisp (or per the pizza dough instructions), about 13 minutes. Cut into pieces. Eat.
Variation - Butternut Squash, Portabello Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Pizza
One of our favorite variations on the above is to make it with butternut squash and lots of other goodies. Here's that riff on the theme:
1 tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups sliced baby portabello mushrooms
1/2 butternut squash
2 generous pinches of light brown sugar
Pizza crust
1 14-oz jar pizza or pasta sauce
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup packed mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz)
1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 small log of goat cheese
Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or to whatever temp advised by the directions on the pizza crust package). Heat oil in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until caramelized, about 5-7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft, approximately 3 minutes.
While the other vegetables are cooking, scoop all the seeds and slimy insides out of your half-of-a-squash. Lay cut size down on microwave-safe plastic wrap and poke several holes with a fork in the rind side of the squash. Cook in the microwave directly on the microwave plate in 5 minute intervals until soft. When the squash is done, scoop out the innards into a small bowl, mix in the brown sugar and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
When the mushrooms are soft, add the squash to the vegetable mixture. Saute for another 3 minutes.
Place pizza crust on baking sheet. Spread sauce over. Sprinkle with garlic, then mozzarella. Top with squash mixture and tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Dot the top with goat cheese. Bake pizza until cheese melts and crust is crisp (or per the pizza dough instructions), about 13 minutes. Cut into pieces. Scarf down.
Variation - Kale and Goat Cheese Pizza
1 tbs olive oil
1 small red onion
1 1/2 cups baby portabello mushrooms
3 cups chopped kale
1/2 tbs dried crushed red pepper
Salt to taste
1 14-oz jar pizza or pasta sauce
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup packed shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 small log goat cheese
Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or to whatever temp advised by the directions on the pizza crust package). Heat oil in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until caramelized, about 5-7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft, approximately 3 minutes. Add kale and crushed red pepper and season with salt. Saute until wilted, approx. 1-2 minutes.
Place pizza crust on baking sheet. Spread sauce over. Sprinkle with garlic, then mozzarella. Top with kale mixture and tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Dot the top with goat cheese. Bake pizza until cheese melts and crust is crisp (or per the pizza dough instructions), about 13 minutes. Cut into pieces. Devour it.
Grillin'
Last night we did a variation on the kale pie, using the beautiful red russian kale from our CSA box, and cooking the pizzas on the grill, instead of in the oven.
In preparation, I looked at several grilled pizza recipes and learned about the two most common pitfalls of pizza grilling. First, because of "hot spots" on the grill, if you just throw the crust straight on, it can be hard to get it to cook evenly---you are likely to end up with parts of your crust blackened. Not necessarily the height of yum. Second, it can be very difficult to get a loaded pie on and off a grill without some accoutrement to assist. I ended up deciding to pick up these great pizza grill pans at Cost Plus World Market---they neatly avoided both problems.
First, we divided the bag of TJ's dough in half and rolled out two medium sized rounds, both a bit smaller than the grill pans. Then, we put the dough on the grill pans on the grill. Cooking over medium heat, it didn't take long for the dough to bake and puff up, almost like big, beautiful rounds of chapati roti.
At that point, we took the grill pans back to the kitchen to load the pizzas. The very first item we put on the pizzas was the mozzarella cheese. Then, we poured the sauce (which we had already heated on the stovetop) over the cheese. On the grill, of course, all of your heat is going to come from below the pie. This slightly unorthodox ordering of toppings ensures that your cheese will melt. All of the other items went on in their regular order from the kale pizza recipe above and, last night, we also added a bit of spicy Italian sausage that we had cooked up on the stovetop in a skillet.
Once everything was loaded on, we put the pizzas back on the grill, closed the top so that the handles stuck out the front of the barbecue and let the magic happen. We checked on them every few minutes and, in about seven minutes, the pies were done and the crust was perfect: crisp enough that the slice didn't bend or buckle under the weight of the toppings when lifted from plate to mouth, but still chewy. I see lots more grilled pizza nights in our future.
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