I don’t claim to make sense. 

I can now claim to have made pizza crust, though.  And not just any pizza crust, but a very quick pizza crust that comes with a bonus: beer.  The recipe is originally from King Arthur Flour and, I have to say,  as easy as they said it would be.  Also, the taste and texture were great.  It’s the kind of crust that would lend itself really well to a generous seasoning of butter, garlic and parmesan.  Sadly I didn’t think of that til after, but I’m going try it on the next one.

Josh, being the resident beer expert in this house, got to select the beer that went into the dough and he picked Bell’s Oarsman Ale, a sour wheat ale. I didn’t have any “pizza dough flavor” (what is that, anyway?) but I did have a ton of fresh thyme, so I threw several sprigs worth of that in there too.  Also at Josh’s request, I made a bbq chicken pizza with Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce, a blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon and chicken that had been marinated in harissa oil, paprika and chili powder and then broiled.  It was pretty delicious.

I was very happy that the crust was so easy to make.  I’m actually on vacation from work for the next two weeks so I technically had time to try a long, convoluted recipe but I didn’t really have motivation to do that.  With this recipe, I just put everything in my mixing bowl and let the dough hook on my mixer do all the work.  Then I let it rise for a couple of hours, divided it into two, rolled out one half and froze the other.  It cooked in the oven at 450F for about 5 minutes, then I added the toppings and let it bake again for another 12.  And that was it.  Yummm.

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So on the way home from Bill’s, we stopped at the store and stocked up on a few things–pizza sauce (Delallo’s was on sale), baby spinach, frozen pepper mix (Josh’s favorite) and a ball of frozen pizza dough.  While Josh and I do enjoy making our own pizza on a fairly regular basis, this would be the first time for either of us to really grill a pizza.  After leaving the dough ball on the counter to thaw for a few hours, and giving our appetites time to return, the moment was at hand.

Josh took control of making the crust; he split the dough in half and rolled out two…circle-ish shapes and placed them on our grill over medium high heat until the undersides were hot and crispy.

Meanwhile, I prepared the toppings.  I tossed a handful of pepperoni into a pan over medium heat and cooked them until softened, letting the extra grease run out.  Then I scooped up the pepperoni and left them to dry on a paper towel.

I didn’t toss the grease though; that stuff is gold.  Instead I used it to sauté the frozen pepper mix and wilt the spinach.  Then I sliced a roma tomato we had sitting around very thinly, got out the sauce and our shredded mozzarella and there was that.

When the crusts were ready, Josh pulled them off the grill and brought them inside, where we assembled the toppings.  One layer of mozzarella, then the sauce, one more thin layer of mozzarella, then the tomato slices and pepperoni, one more thin layer of mozzarella, and then the veggie mixture, and finally one good helping of mozzarella on the top to melt.

Josh placed the back on the grill, over low heat and closed the lid in order to let the gooey cheesiness do it’s thing and then it was time to eat!

Related posts:

1. When life gives you leftover bread, make pizza
2. When the moon hits your eye like a grilled pizza pie….ow. That’s gotta hurt.
3. My Big Fat Greek..nah, that’s too obvious a joke.

Being that I’ve almost always had roommates, or ended up cooking for get togethers, I’m used to cooking for a lot of people.  When it got to be just Josh and me, I had to adjust a bit to cooking for only two, and occasionally on nights like this, I get to relearn how to cook for just one.

Well originally I thought I’d make myself a nice pesto pasta with chicken meatballs (cough), because after all, my basil plant needs cutting down and besides, it’s a rainy night and pasta is usually good for those.  But after lunch it occurred to me that really, I just wanted some pizza.  So I figured I’d make my own.

Now, while picking up our farm share at Morgan and York yesterday, we’d also picked up a loaf of unsliced bread.  We had about half left.  It was good, dense white bread and I figured, hey why not use that as my crust?  After all, I love french bread pizza; it’d be sort of like that.  On the way home we stopped at the store (which, frankly, we do about 5 days a week; we lead a very French style life that way) and I got a few toppings–some part-skim mozzarella cheese, some vine-ripened tomatoes, baby spinach and some good sliced pepperoni (I’m a pepperoni fanatic.  I’ll tell you, I go vegetarian a few times a year and generally for Lent as well and frankly, the hardest thing to give up for me is pepperoni).

So I started by cutting thick slices of bread from the loaf and toasting them in the oven.

While those were toasting, I heated a skillet over medium high heat and tossed in the pepperoni, letting the grease run out a bit.  I tossed in a half cup of diced red bell pepper (I had a couple left from the market this weekend), a quarter cup of sweet onion, a tablespoon of ancho chile powder, a tablespoon of dried rosemary, and salt and pepper and let that cook down.  During the last couple of minutes, I added in a couple cups of the baby spinach to wilt.

Time to assemble!
I wanted everything to stick to the bread and not slide off, so first I started with a slight sprinkle of cheese, and then I laid down my “sauce”—in this case, a fresh sauce of just very thinly sliced tomatoes.

Then a bit more cheese.  Then the spinach and pepperoni mixture–half on each, followed by—you guessed it–more cheese.

I popped it in the oven for another 10 minutes to bake and melt the cheese, sprinkled on a bit of  fresh chopped parsley and then voila!  Dinner was served.

It was pretty delicious too, if I do say so myself.  And I do.  Well, I just did anyway.

Related posts:

1. When the moon hits your eye like a grilled pizza pie….ow. That’s gotta hurt.
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3. There’s a Wocket in My Pizza Pocket