Salute! Pizza al Fresco!

Recently, I took a class at a local cooking school named SizzleWorks. The class was all about making Italian style pizza on the grill! What a class! To be honest, I have never taken a cooking class before, and although I love the idea of cooking, I have made some pretty awful meals. Okay, there are a few good ones now and then, but... I was a little intimidated, but since a friend invited me (thanks, Erin!), I took the plunge.

Don't you love how my wine looks blue in this pic? 

Anyway, we chopped and diced and ate and sliced and drank and grilled and ate. It was blissful. And I felt all professional, like I actually knew what I was doing. This is a big facade for me. I pretend I know, but I am just making it up!!

This was my creation. Half pesto, mozz, tomato, garlic and half gorganzola (I love me some stinky cheese!) pear, and pinenuts. 

Let's just say that I didn't have any left to share or take home! And... I may have eaten a few pieces of my neighbor's pizza. 


I was so jazzed about making my own pizza (and that you put it RIGHT ON THE GRILL!) that we decided to have grilled pizzas for our 4th of July BBQ. Sure hamburgers and dogs are the all-American choice, but I couldn't resist! I'll post pics of that grand adventure later.


Meanwhile, here is the recipe for the pizza dough. 

Thin Crust Italian Pizza Dough

1 package yeast (bread yeast, the blue package)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup warm water (110 to 120*F)

3 cups type 00 pizza flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Dissolve yeast and add 1 teaspoon sugar in the warm water, set aside to "proof." Meanwhile, in food processor, process remaining sugar, flour, and salt to combine. With machine running, add yeast mixture slowly. Then add oil. Process until ball forms, adding additional water if necessary. Process 45 seconds to knead, making a very soft dough. Cover and let rise on an olive oil greased pan, about 1 hour, until double. Pat out to form circle, roll to cracker thin, brush with olive oil (or garlic oil-yum!) and top as desired. Use cornmeal on the bottom for "ball-bearings" then slide onto a very hot grill. Once grill marks are present, move it up to the top rack in your grill for about 4 minutes. Presto!