SKILLET GRILLED PIZZA

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza. Sauteed Amaranth greens and Feta Pizza. Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese-Bacon Vinaigrette Pizza.

This week Niki from Salt & Pepper chose our Food Matters Project recipe. It was Mark Bittman's No-Work Mostly Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I was excited to try his recipe for dough. It is part whole wheat flour and part all purpose flour. I liked the mixture of the two flours and he uses instant yeast so this dough comes together in just a few minutes. There is no kneading or punching just mix it up and let it sit in a warm spot for 6 to 12 hours. I got the dough started and headed off to the Farmer's Market for inspiration.

I spotted some lovely Amaranth leaves. Using the Greek dish Vlita (boiled amaranth leaves, served with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon) as my inspiration for my topping my plan started. I would saute the greens in olive oil, salt, pepper, and some  lemon juice. Cheese...hmmm Greek Feta of course.

Done.

But I kept walking and a farmer suggested I taste his arugula. Oh my, so spicy and wonderful. It was sitting right next to the fresh asparagus. Ah....pizza topped with asparagus, arugula pesto and goat cheese.

Done.

And then I saw some beautiful fresh romaine. I could top a pizza with grilled romaine, blue cheese, and a bacon vinaigrette. And while the fire is hot I will grill the pizzas as well.

Woo Hoo!

Really done.

I decided to make three small pizzas with three different toppings. We started the BBQ and soaked some oak chips for added flavor to the pizza. I looked at the dough. Ooops, it was way too soft to put on the grill. I only let it sit for 6 1/2 hours, maybe if it was longer it would have been firmer. So plan B. In the skillet over the fire. That should give it a nice smoky grilled flavor.

I put olive oil in the bottom of the skillet, spread the dough out and put the skillets over the hot fire. When the bottom was cooked we flipped the dough over and cooked it another 5 minutes or so and then added the toppings and put the lid on the grill so the pizza would pick up some of the oak smoke.. Flipping it over made for a crispy crust that we love. The crust reminded me of Indian Fry Bread that I made a million years ago. This was the BEST pizza ever. Hubby's favorite was the grilled romaine pizza and then the asparagus pizza. My favorite was the amaranth pizza. I'll post the recipes over the next few days. For the original Mark Bittman recipe go over to our host, Niki's blog here. For more really creative ideas for pizza visit all our adaptations here.

Thanks Niki! This was really fun.