Grilled Zucchini Pizza

We grill pizza quite often in the summer. If you’ve ever grilled pizza, you will agree that just about anything makes a delicious topping on the smoky, crisp crust. It is a very quick supper, as well, if you keep pizza dough on hand. Most stores carry the refrigerated dough. But, it is so easy to make, and homemade is much cheaper, too, so why not make your own?

My dough recipe is made with a combination of whole wheat and unbleached flours, Kosher salt, yeast, a small amount of extra virgin olive oil and water. That’s it! I allow it to rise, punch it down and put it into a slightly oiled zipper bag and pop it into the refrigerator. When I want to use it, I allow it to come to room temperature and then roll it out (hand stretching is best, if you can do it) to fit my pan.

When the grill is hot, I spray it lightly with olive oil. I flop the dough out of the pan and onto the grill for a few minutes, until the bottom is nicely grilled. I then flip it onto a pizza peel (that has been dusted with cornmeal) — cooked side up — to top as desired. The pizza is returned to the grill, using the pizza peel, to finish cooking.

Ingredients

2 zucchinis, sliced into thick rings
olive oil
finely chopped garlic
grated Parmesan cheese
a few heirloom tomatoes, fresh from the garden
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Trader Giotto’s Quattro Formaggio cheese blend
pizza pepper
prepared pizza crust
fresh basil leaves

The cheese blend, and the pizza pepper are both just something that I always have on hand. Any good melting cheese would work just fine, but I always have used a combination of mozzarella and provolone if I didn’t have access to this 4-cheese blend. As far as the pizza pepper is concerned, that is something I like to use, the idea brought with me from growing up eating bar pizzas on the East Coast. Pizza pepper was ALWAYS on the table, along with grated Parmesan cheese. It adds a nice spice to the rather bland (for pizza) zucchini. If you don’t have it, you can substitute crushed red pepper flakes and a little Italian seasoning.

Instructions

I cooked the zucchini, seasoned lightly with olive oil, Kosher salt and cracked pepper, on a grill pan until barely tender. After cooling slightly, I cut it into bite-size pieces, and set it aside.

After grilling the first side of the pizza dough, I removed it from the fire (flipping it over onto a pizza peel, as mentioned above) and spread it, lightly, with olive oil, crushed garlic and grated Parmesan cheese.

I sliced a few ripe heirloom tomatoes — I think I had a combination of Paul Robesons, Mister Stripeys and Green Zebras — and then I broke them into small pieces, over the crust, so the juice would fall onto the crust, as well. I then added the grilled zucchini, a light sprinkling of the cheese blend, and sprinkled the top with some more Parmesan and some pizza pepper. I tore some fresh basil leaves on top, and returned the pizza to the grill (using the pizza peel).

I then lowered my coals a bit, and closed the lid. The pizza was finished when the bottom was nicely browned and the cheese had melted!

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Serving suggestion: We always enjoy a salad, of some kind, with our pizza. For this meal, we had our “house favorite” — red leaf lettuce, sliced celery, sliced red onion, fresh garden tomatoes and crumbled bleu cheese, simply dressed with olive oil & red wine vinegar. We always, always eat this garnished with garlic-stuffed olives! No olives in the house? Then it will be no “house salad” that night! But, there will ALWAYS be red wine.