Foodie Friday - Poolside Pizza Party


Tonight kicked off what promises to be a very busy and friend-filled weekend for me, and what better way to get started than with good food?

Good food consisted of grilled pizzas, an idea stolen from A Good Appetite:
  • 1 c warm water (110 to 115 F)
  • 2 1/2 t active dry yeast
  • 1/2 t sugar
  • 4 T olive oil
  • 3 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
  • 2 t kosher salt
Combine the water, yeast & sugar in a bowl & stir until mixed. Let sit 5 minutes until it gets foamy. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil.

Mix the flour & salt together in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture & stir until the dough forms a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky, not dry. If more flour is needed, add it in 1 tablespoon at a time.

Coat the inside of a large bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl & turn to coat with oil. Cover & let rise until doubled about 1 hour.

Cut four pieces of aluminum foil about 12" x 12". Spray the foil with non-stick spray or olive oil. Divide the pizza dough into four pieces. Stretch (or roll, as I did, or toss if you're really that good) each piece of dough out to about a 10" circle on the prepared pieces of foil. Flip them onto the grill, one at a time, dough side down. Peel away the foil. Close the lid & let cook 1 - 2 minutes, the top of the dough should be bubbly & the bottom should be grill-marked.

Remove from grill, add your toppings and return to grill until cheese is melted and toppings are cooked to your liking. We had on topped with sirloin and fresh mozarella, one with spinach/tomato/olive with mozzarella and romano, one with red, yellow and green bell peppers, baby bella mushrooms and red onions with mozarella and asiago, and the last consisted of everything we had left, which turned out muy delicioso.

We used my own homemade tomato sauce. I don't really use set proportions, but this is what I throw in the saucepan and it has yet to fail me:
  • diced tomatoes
  • tomato paste
  • diced yellow onion
  • minced garlic
  • fresh basil
  • crushed red pepper
  • nutmeg
  • salt
  • pepper
I think the title photo speaks for the evening, but here are a few others just to reiterate. Hope you enjoy this pizza as much as we did!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introductions

Image
I’ll be spending the next few weeks culling through old posts, removing some that were contrived, forced, posted for the sake of posting something. In the meantime, I think it’s important to make some introductions. Six years and all. Meet Frankie and Sasha. These girls currently live with me part-time, as a matter of custody arrangements (more on that later), and I get the joy of spending every other week spoiling them with hikes, swims, and way too many baby carrots. My sweet, loyal, neurotic, too-smart Carmen passed away in November 2013 at 5½ years old due to kidney disease, which she had battled most of her too-short life. Just three weeks later, I came across a scraggly, injured, smelly black puppy aimlessly wandering the mean streets of Beaumont, TX. She was worse for the wear and looked like spare parts, but she was the epitome of friendly. We wrapped her in a towel and she promptly fell asleep in my arms. I dubbed her Frankenstein’s dog, which was shortened to Franki
Read more

There's No Place

Image
In the month or two that I've been so carelessly absent here, my living situation has been decidedly... undecided. The roommate with whom I signed a 14-month lease expressed interest in moving out back in May (lease ends October 19) and followed through on her whim to bail in June, leaving me with our ideal 2/2 apartment and double rent. Coincidentally, a friend fresh out of A&M thought he might take the spare room but has yet to find a job, so that fell through. I had plans of subletting a friend's apartment when he leaves for school in September and thought I would just tough out the double rent until then. That plan went ka-put as well, and probably for the better. I made the solid decision last week to re-sign the lease on my own. Yes, that is just how much I love this apartment, the location, the people... Vaulted ceilings, spacious layout, washer/dryer connections, colorful accent walls painted by yours truly, all this tucked away in Austin's Greenbelt with a bea
Read more