A Pizza of Figs

Ok, now that everybody has the basic homemade pizza recipe down pat, we can move on to more exciting variations. Like grilling (on the barbecue!), adding fresh herbs to the dough (rosemary!), turning the whole thing into a fancy tasty plate for a fresh salad (arugula!), and taking advantage of fresh seasonal produce (figs!). What's great about this is that it is fancy and tasty but still affordable and healthy. Oh, and my mom really really likes fig pizza.

I've been wanting to try grilling pizza for a while, and I'm glad I finally took the plunge. It's really not complicated once you figure it out. One of the really nice benefits of grilling pizza on the barbecue is that you can avoid the awful overheated kitchen (or whole house) that comes from cooking a pizza indoors. As my dad pointed out, mine was a very successful "maiden voyage." As I suspected the whole process wasn't too difficult, and the combination of the rosemary in the pizza dough, and the sweetness of the figs with the tartness of the goat cheese all topped off with the peppery bite of the arugula was pretty perfect. Especially eaten in the backyard with a glass of wine on a warm evening.

Whole Wheat Herbed Pizza Dough

Makes 2 pizzas (enough for 4 people)

3/4 cups warm water

1/4 cup white wine

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 tsp instant yeast)

1 tsp honey

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups all purpose white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1-2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and wine, then stir in the honey, salt and olive oil. Add the flour and rosemary, stirring until it comes together. Sprinkle your workspace with flour (I prefer using whole wheat), dump the dough out onto the flour, and knead it for a couple of minutes, until the texture is smooth and uniform. Form it into a nice, neat ball.

Coat the inside of a large bowl with olive oil, and place your dough ball in it, coating the dough lightly with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for an hour or two until it has doubled in size.

Once the dough has doubled, place it back on the floured work surface and gently deflate it. Using a sharp knife, neatly slice the dough in half. Form each half into round balls, pinching the seams of the cut sides together. Wipe the excess oil out of the large bowl and turn it upside down over the dough and let it rise, covered, for 15-30 more minutes. After this step, you will stretch or roll the dough as thinly as possible, at which point you will be ready to grill them.

In order to grill the pizzas you will need to have your barbecue to be hot, and you will need to have your toppings prepared.

Toppings

Figs (I used 8 figs, sliced into rounds)

1/2 small Red onion (thinly sliced)

5 oz soft goat cheese

Arugula

Balsamic vinegar & olive oil

Put together all of your toppings so that you can spread them on your pizza quickly and easily while it is on the grill. Slice the figs into nice little circles (I recommend eating the little bottom pieces, just to remind yourself of how good they are). Break the cheese up into small chunks with your fingers. After thinly slicing the red onion, soak it in some hot water to help take the bite off since it won't be cooked very much (you can skip this step if you don't mind raw onions). Wash and dry the arugula and lightly dress it with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

By now you should have all of your toppings prepared, your pizza dough should be stretched to it's desired thinness & shape, and your grill should be hot. I recommend having an extra plate, a pair of tongs, a brush (for the oil), and a hot pad handy.

When you are ready to get started, spread a little bit of olive oil on one side of the pizza dough and flip the dough over, oil side down onto the grill surface. Close the lid and wait for a few minutes, until you can see some nice grill marks on the bottom. At this point you can either oil the top and flip the pizza over, or you can forget to flip it and just rotate it and top it (like I did, with much success). Spread half of the toppings evenly over each pizza, close the top and keep cooking it until the dough is cooked all of the way through, and the cheese is meltingly warm.

Slide the pizza onto a plate (or cutting board) and slice it up! Top it with a handful of the dressed arugula if you like.

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!

As I have mentioned previously, my family lived in a relatively rural area when I was growing up.  This meant that it took half an hour to drive to school (both ways!), 15 minutes to get to the closest grocery store, and 20 minutes to get to my best friend's house.  It also meant that we could not get pizza delivery (or any kind of delivery for that matter).  On the plus side we had a huge garden with lots of fresh vegetables, but while my brother and I may have enjoyed eating lemon cucumbers and cherry tomatoes straight off the vine, the elusive pizza held a special place in our imaginations.  

  Delivery pizza is the epitome of parents giving up all pretense of putting together a healthy meal - giving up so fully that they're not even pretending to get into the kitchen (or even the car).  Unfortunately for us, our parents were organized and unflagging in their efforts to provide us with healthy well balanced homemade meals.  On the few occasions that we went out for pizza, my brother would go all out, ordering "double cheese" and the ever exotic "hawaiian" pizza.  Our family's healthy eating habits often left us longing for a taste of all those things that normal parents let their kids eat.

When we finally moved to the "city" when I was in high-school, the revelation that we could have pizza delivered made us giddy at first.  We ordered some pizza, ate it, bemoaned how full and greasy we felt and promptly never did it again.

I think that I have finally found a way to bring pizza into our home: make it from scratch.  It's fresher, tastier, and healthier.  Plus it's really easy.  

Whole Wheat Pizza with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Adapted from Smittenkitchen

Serves two

6 Tbsp warm water

2 Tbsp white wine

3/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1/2 tsp instant yeast)

1/2 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and wine, then stir in the honey, salt and olive oil.  Add the flour, stirring until it comes together.  Sprinkle your work surface with some flour (I like to use whole wheat), dump the dough out onto the flour, and knead it for a couple of minutes, until the texture is smooth and uniform.  Form it into a nice, neat ball.

Coat the inside of a medium sized bowl with olive oil, and place your dough ball in it, coating the dough lightly with olive oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for an hour or two until it has doubled in size.  Alternatively, you can make the dough in the morning and put it in the refrigerator for the day for a very slow rise. It should be ready for the second step by the time you get home from work in the evening.  

Pre-heat the oven to 500.

Once the dough has doubled, place it once again on a floured work surface, and gently deflate it by pressing down on it with the palm of your hand.  Form it back into a ball, and leaving it on the work surface, cover it loosely with plastic wrap, a dishtowel, or an upside down bowl.  Leave it for another 15 minutes or so, then roll it, stretch it, or press it out into as thin as you can get it without ripping it.  

Put it on a the surface you want to cook it on with a little bit of cornmeal sprinkled on the bottom to keep it from sticking.  Top it with your homemade sauce and some shredded mozzarella cheese (not too much).

Bake it on whatever surface you have available (pizza stone, baking sheet, large cast iron skillet), for 10-15 minutes or until it is done.  You want to make sure the dough cooks completely - you can lift a corner of the pizza up and peek underneath to see if the bottom is still doughy or beginning to crisp up if you are having trouble telling if it is done.

When the pizza is done, take it out, slice it, and top it with fresh basil if you have it.

Pizza Sauce

You can start making this sauce while the dough is rising.

4 medium or 3 large Tomatoes or 1 can of tomatoes (with their juice)

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

Splash of white wine

Salt to taste

You can remove the skins from the tomatoes if you want, but I actually don't think it is necessary.  If you want to, just x the bottoms of the tomatoes and submerge them in boiling water for about a minute - the skins should peel off easily.

Put a small pot on the stove over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil.  When the oil is warm, add the minced garlic, and cook it, stirring for a couple of minutes - until it is fragrant (don't let it brown though, that will make it bitter).  Add the tomatoes and the wine, and simmer for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.  It should be very juicy at first, and but by the time it is done it should have thickened up quite a bit.  Once it's done, add salt to taste and then spread it on your pizza.