This pizza was super easy to make and I thought it was delicious. My husband wasn't a huge fan but he said it was a make-again every 4 months or so. That's my question to him any time I make something new - is it a make-again? That tells me if he likes it or not. We've had the
Grilled Chicken and Summer Vegetable Skillet twice already. He requests it actually! It is quite fresh and easy to make and since men love BBQ sauce so much the flavor suits his pallet. I think since this pizza was so simple and didn't have the tomato or BBQ sauce he prefers (or requires) on pizza it may have just been too complicated for his pallet. It was a little on the spicy side as well, suited though as it's a mexican pizza. This one is a two-parter as well since I made my own pizza crust. It's 100x cheaper than buying and so easy. I grilled and blended the veggies and prepared the pizza crust in the morning and put it in the fridge until I was off work just after 5pm. Once I was off work I ran downstairs, started the grill, pressed the dough into a semi-rectangle, cooked the pizza crust, placed the veggies on the pizza, put the cheese on, put the top down on the BBQ and waited for the cheese to melt. I ate the pizza with my husband and was all done by 5:35pm.
Basic Pizza Crust (from Company's Coming Pizza!)
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water
2 tbsp cooking oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)
Put first 2 ingredients into medium bowl. Stir together well.
Add warm water and cooking oil. Mix well unjtil dough leaves sides of bowl. Knead on lightly floured surface for 5-8 mins until smooth and elastic.
It's up to you what you do with the crust at this point in time. You can roll it onto a pizza pan and use it immediately, or roll it onto a pizza pan or leave in a large greased bowl and let sit covered by a tea towel to rise in the oven with the light on and the door closed. I put the dough in the fridge as I work for 4h and cannot watch the dough while I'm working.
Variations:
Taco Pizza Crust: Mix 1/2 envelope of taco seasoning mix into dry ingredients before adding wet ingredients
Grilled Pizza Mexicana (from
Canadian Living magazine, August 2010)
1lb pizza dough
2 tsp olive oil
8oz fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and sliced (I used shredded cheese from Cash n Carry in Bellingham)
Grilled Tomato Salsa:
6 ripe plum tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers (I used hot yellow peppers as the grocery store was out of jalapenos)
half white onion (I used green onions)
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled (I'm huge on garlic and always overuse it. Feel free to add to your liking)
2 soaked dried or canned chipotle peppers seeded (or chipotle hot sauce to taste)
1 clove garlic, smashed
1/4tsp salt
1/3cup fresh coriander chopped
Place tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, onion and unpeeled garlic on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and grill until tender and charred, 15 to 20mins. Let cool enough to handle.
Peel and core tomateos, discarding juice; place in blender. Peel and seed jalapeno peppers; add to blender. Remove charred layer of onion; chop onion and add to blender. Squeeze garlic from skin into blender.
Add chipotle peppers, smashed garlic and salt; blend until minced. Add coriander; blend until almost pureed. Scrape into bowl.
On lightly floured surface, stretch dough to 16"x12" rectangle; brush with oil. Place, oiled side down on grill over medium heat, close lid and grill just until grill-marked on bottom and bubbles form on top, 3-6min. Turn and grill, covered, just until surface is cooked but not browned, about 1 minute. Remove from grill.
Spread 3/4 cup of the salsa over crust; cover with cheese. Grill, covered, until cheese is melted and bubbly and underside is browned, 3-8mins. Serve with remaining salsa to spoon over top.
(Abby's note: I left the crust on the BBQ while I spooned the salsa on the crust and used all of it. Then I covered with cheese and waited for the cheese to melt with the BBQ lid down.)
