Grilled Heirloom Tomato Pizza
6.27.16
I bet summer is the #1 favorite season for most people. After all it’s associated with enjoyable things like 3 month long school breaks, family vacations, and pool parties. For the food obsessed, summertime is when stone fruits, summer berries, and tomatoes are in season and at their peak of flavor. One of my favorite things about the Pacific Northwest, is the close proximity to produce farms and orchards. Which means…summer berry picking! So two weeks ago I went out to a U-pick strawberry farm and not to sound like a snob, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to the store bought ones.
So what makes a fresh picked strawberry so much better than its grocery store brethren? For starters, they don’t have that thick white-green ring around the leaf top, which is one indicator that it’ll be sour and unripe. (Note: It’s ok for a berry to have a bit of white directly underneath the leaves.) Fully mature and ripe berries will have a mostly solid, ruby red coloring all throughout. This translates into amazingly sweet and juicy fruit! But I get it, it’s not like we all live next to farmers markets or have backyard gardens. After all I grew up in Ohio, surrounded by corn and soybeans fields. It’s not exactly a cornucopia of produce like California is.
Another thing that I learned from my trip is how raspberries get their hollow centers. Obviously I could’ve Googled this, but it’s not something that normally comes to mind when I shop for groceries. So the same strawberry farm also grows raspberries for self-picking. There I learned the secret behind it. For starters, they look like your typical berry when still attached to the stem. However, when you pull on them, the outer fruit shell slides off, leaving behind the core and you with a hollow berry! Mind blown.
Now that summer is here, no one wants to be slaving away in a hot kitchen. When you can be out frolicking through berry fields or grilling with friends. It’s why I love summer recipes as they’re little to no fuss. But incredibly flavorful by taking advantage of seasonal fruit or veg like this grilled pizza does.
Quick intro, this pizza is basically a caprese salad on top of grilled pizza dough. It’s an easy recipe as you only need to make the dough. Heck, you can even skip that step and just buy pre-made dough! I used a variety of heirloom tomatoes to achieve that beautiful rainbow effect, but they also added an amazing depth of flavor and sweetness. So fire up that grill, grab a drink and a few friends to enjoy this pizza party with!
So what makes a fresh picked strawberry so much better than its grocery store brethren? For starters, they don’t have that thick white-green ring around the leaf top, which is one indicator that it’ll be sour and unripe. (Note: It’s ok for a berry to have a bit of white directly underneath the leaves.) Fully mature and ripe berries will have a mostly solid, ruby red coloring all throughout. This translates into amazingly sweet and juicy fruit! But I get it, it’s not like we all live next to farmers markets or have backyard gardens. After all I grew up in Ohio, surrounded by corn and soybeans fields. It’s not exactly a cornucopia of produce like California is.
Another thing that I learned from my trip is how raspberries get their hollow centers. Obviously I could’ve Googled this, but it’s not something that normally comes to mind when I shop for groceries. So the same strawberry farm also grows raspberries for self-picking. There I learned the secret behind it. For starters, they look like your typical berry when still attached to the stem. However, when you pull on them, the outer fruit shell slides off, leaving behind the core and you with a hollow berry! Mind blown.
Now that summer is here, no one wants to be slaving away in a hot kitchen. When you can be out frolicking through berry fields or grilling with friends. It’s why I love summer recipes as they’re little to no fuss. But incredibly flavorful by taking advantage of seasonal fruit or veg like this grilled pizza does.
Quick intro, this pizza is basically a caprese salad on top of grilled pizza dough. It’s an easy recipe as you only need to make the dough. Heck, you can even skip that step and just buy pre-made dough! I used a variety of heirloom tomatoes to achieve that beautiful rainbow effect, but they also added an amazing depth of flavor and sweetness. So fire up that grill, grab a drink and a few friends to enjoy this pizza party with!
Notes:
- When checking yeast activity, you’ll want to use warm water. It needs to be cool enough to comfortably leave you finger in for several seconds without burning.
- This is a basic pizza dough recipe, obviously feel free to experiment with different flours (00, wheat, gluten free). Just note that you may need to adjust the liquid-dry ingredient ratios.
- I prepped my dough a day ahead for convenience and to develop more flavor. However store bought dough is a great alternative and there’s no shame to it. Even Bon Appetit recommends this!
- It’s important to roll the dough out a thin as possible. The heat will cause the dough to contract and puff up. If not, you’ll end up with a Frisbee sized disk of dough an inch thick!
Pizza Dough
Adapted from Epicurious and Serious Eats
Makes 1 large pizza (12-14 inch)
Ingredients
Instructions
Adapted from Epicurious and Serious Eats
Makes 1 large pizza (12-14 inch)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 envelope active dry yeast
- 2 cup (more if needed) AP flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing
Instructions
- Heat water on the stove or in the microwave. If too hot, add cold water till warm enough to handle.
- Combine water with yeast and allow to sit for 5 min.
- Lightly grease a bowl with oil and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients together and stir till blended.
- Add yeast and oil to the dry ingredients.
- Knead the dough either by hand or using a mixer. Work till smooth and forms a ball. If dough is too sticky, add 1 Tbsp of flour at a time.
- Move dough to the greased bowl and roll it around to coat with oil.
- Cover bowl and allow to proof.
- If grilling the same day, move the dough to a warm area or an oven to proof for 1 hour.
- Then deflate the dough, and shape it into a 12-14 inch disc (1/8 inch thick or thinner)
- If you’re prepping the dough a day ahead, cover and chill it in the fridge till the next day.
- 2 hours before use, take the dough out and let it proof again before rolling out.
Assembly
Inspired by Bon Appetit
Ingredients
Instructions
Inspired by Bon Appetit
Ingredients
- 4-5 Heirloom tomatoes, varying colors, thinly sliced
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup basil, chopped
- dough, rolled out
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Slice tomatoes and mozzarella into ¼ inch thick slices.
- Chop basil finely and set aside.
- To prep the pizza dough for grilling, brush one side with oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Place the seasoned side face down onto a grill heated to 500F.
- Let the dough cook till browned (1-2 min), in the meantime oil and season the top side.
- Flip the dough and move it to the cool side of the grill.
- Immediately top with mozzarella and cover the grill to melt the cheese for 1 min.
- Top with tomatoes and cover again for 1 min to warm the toppings.
- Once the dough is crisp and browned, remove pizza and top with basil.
- Liberally season with salt and pepper. Finish with extra virgin olive oil.