With our move just ten days away, my dinnertime fare has been anything but fabulous. So to spare you the details of how I attempt to make magic with a pot, pan and spatula (the only items we haven’t packed) I’m posting one of my summertime favorites, originally posted July 2009. Enjoy!
Never underestimate the power of dining together. Our dining table is the practice ground for good table manners and a place where we connect with our friends and family.
Homemade pizza is one of our family favorites. It’s perfect for a quiet family dinner and entertaining a large group. During the summer we love to toss our pizza on the grill and top with our favorite garden fresh ingredients.
First we prepare the crust using Ina Garten’s California Pizza Recipe, it’s easy and you’ll never go back to frozen or store bought dough again. Honestly, just look at my cookbook. If these pages could talk they would tell story after story of quiet family nights to hosting small armies of children where everyone makes their own.
While the dough is rising we make the sauce and prepare our toppings. Sometimes we like to have lots of toppings from Ms. Garten’s list. Tonight we are keeping it simple with a margarita pizza using tomatoes and basil from the garden and fresh mozzarella (the mozzarella is store bought but homemade mozzarella is on my domestic bucket list.)
When the dough is ready we put it on the grill on medium/low and grill until both sides have faint grill marks.
Once both sides are grilled we add the sauce, toppings and cheese (in that order)
And grill until the cheese has melted. Top with basil and serve hot and delicious!
A crustless alternative…
A crustless alternative, we cut thick slices of an eggplant. Brush with olive oil and grill and top using the same steps above. Honestly, eggplant is not my favorite but when Elle the lover of all things purple found it at the farmers’ market we had to get creative. I’ve always encouraged trying new food and they loved it prepared this way… me too!
Manners note: when a pizza slice is managable it is perfectly acceptable to eat it with your hands. Just keep napkins handy so you aren’t tempted to do the
five finger smack!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ooh, I like the crustless pizza eggplant idea…
Brilliant! We have pizza weekly yet I dislike to heat up the house with the oven. We will try these on Thursday. Thank you for another get idea.
Kate thank you for stopping by! We love grilled pizza for the very reason that it keeps our house from turning into an oven. Keep me posted on how it goes… I’d love to hear.
I will lick my fingers. You can’t stop me. Yum!
Too funny.. was planning a grilled pizza dinner next week to post on my blog! I have never done it.. and now I know how! Looks delicious. I will have to come up with another idea :0 !!