Grilled Zucchini Pizza

We have a ton of beautiful summer squash that just arrived in our CSA box and since the weather has cooled off a bit I thought it would be the perfect time to fire up the grill. For tonight’s dinner I decided to pull a new trick out of the book, not only grilling the veggies for the pizza but actually assembling the entire meal over the grill. Big thanks to Sarah for pushing me to try this out.

The result was a delicious brick oven fired pizza with crispy burnt edges and just the right amount of bubbly crust. I topped my pie with a fresh tomato sauce, two types of cheese, summer squash and fresh basil. At the end of the cooking time I added a quick drizzle of EVOO over the entire pie.

Crust

1 ball of pizza dough

Cornmeal

EVOO

S&P

Toppings

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

S&P

EVOO

Fresh mozzarella

Goat cheese crumbles

1 can diced tomatoes with roasted garlic (I pureed them into sauce)

Basil

Roll out the dough on to a pan. Use the cornmeal to help keep it from sticking to the pan. Sprinkle the top side of the dough with more cornmeal, drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with S&P to season. If you are wondering why I use cornmeal instead of flour it is just personal taste. I like the crunchy bits it leaves on the crust, but you can feel free to use flour if you don’t have cornmeal on hand. Poke holes around the crust with a fork to help keep it from bubbling up and then slowly slide the crust onto the hot grill. Grill for 1-2 minutes on medium heat until the bottom is crispy. Flip the crust over to cook the opposite side and oil the top of the crust. Cover with the tomato sauce and then all the other toppings and cook for 3 to 5 more minutes (or until the cheese has melted.) The two other tips I have for cooking this type of pizza were given to me by sweet Sarah, thinly slice the mozzarella ahead of time and place the slices between sheets of paper towels with a plate over them so that the access juices can run out of them keeping them from creating a soppy pie. Add the basil at the very end of the cooking time so it just barely wilts under the heat.

I grilled up a bunch of extra squash while I had the grill on tonight so that I could use the extras for meals later in the week. I store them in a glass bowl in the fridge arranging them in criss cross layers so they are easy to get out when you need them.