Grilled pizza always sort of scared me. I could just imagine that if I were to try to make it, I’d end up with pizza dough falling through the grates of the grill and making a general mess of things. Yes, I’m ridiculous. No, I can’t help it.
All it takes is a conversation with someone who HAS made grilled pizza to realize that A) I’m wrong, and B) It’s completely delicious. And you don’t have to do anything special to grill pizza. You can use whatever pizza dough you’d like. You can top it however you like. It’s still your pizza, just cooked a little differently.
I didn’t use my usual whole wheat pizza crust recipe this time, opting for a bread flour and spice filled crust instead. You can use whatever crust you like best….even *gasp* store bought if you’d like. And the recipe for this crust says to let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours…I’m not that patient nor do I think that far in advance. My crust dough was in the refrigerator for about 8 hours before I pulled it out.
And although it’s still grilled pizza, I didn’t use our outdoor gas grill because it’s a million degrees in Houston in August at 5:30 in the evening. No way was I going to sweat for these. To the rescue? The Cuisinart Griddler. I opened it up flat and put the grill plates on it and voila! Grilling in the air conditioning – it’s a beautiful thing.
These were really, really stinkin’ good. Even the weeone, who used spinach and cheese only, said she definitely wanted this pizza again. Yes, she is requesting a repeat of spinach. It’s amazing what kids will eat when it’s on a pizza!
These are fun for a lot of reasons, but one is simply that you top the pizza after they come off the grill which means each person in your house can customize theirs a tad to their liking. But when they’re grilled, I think simple is best.
So fire up the grill and I promise your dough will not fall through the grates.
Grilled Pizza with Prosciutto and Spinach
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 cup warm water, divided
- 1 teaspoon chopped thyme (I used dried, but fresh would be outstanding)
- 1 teaspoon chopped oregano
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 package of dry yeast ( 2 1/4 teaspoons)
- kosher salt
- cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon cornmeal
- 5 ounces shredded fontina cheese
- 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette dressing (I use a no fat version from Maple Grove Farms)
- freshly ground black pepper
Now What?
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, 3/4 cup of the warm water, thyme, oregano and garlic. Mix with the dough hook until it’s all combined. Then let stand for about 15 minutes.
- With 5 minutes to go on the dough resting, mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water and let it stand for 5 minutes or until it bubbles.
- Add yeast mixture, a couple of grinds of kosher salt to the flour mixture and beat on low for five minutes or until a dough forms. Spray a bowl with cooking spray, add the dough, cover with a plastic wrap coated in cooking spray and chill in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand, covered for an hour to bring it to room temperature. The dough will be puffy. Punch the dough down.
- Divide the dough in 4 portions and shape each into a 7-8 inch circle. Place on a baking sheet covered with cornmeal.
- Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Cover with cooking spray.
- Place dough on the grill with the cornmeal side up and grill for 3 minutes or until the dough is blistered. Turn over and grill another 3 minutes. Remove the dough from the grill.
- Top your cooked dough with about 4- 5 tablespoons of cheese and 1 ounce or proscuitto and several grinds of pepper.
- In a bowl, dress the spinach with balsamic vinaigrette then divide evenly among the pizzas. Serve immediately.
Nutritional Information: per serving of one pizza round
Calories: 435, Fat: 16g (sat 9g, poly 1g, mono 3g), Chol: 59mg, Sodium: 1039mg, Potassium: 214mg, Carbs: 50g, Fiber: 2g, Sugars: 1g, Protein: 21g
