Grilled Pizza dough topped with fresh ricotta cheese, honey glazed pears, arugula, and gorgonzola.
For those of you who haven’t realized it yet, I’m half Italian. And being Italian has had a huge influence on the way I cook and eat, in every way from eating meals surrounded by friends and family to trying my best to use the fresh ingredients whenever I can. But if there’s one food that sums up the quintessential Italian experience for me, as it does for most people, its pizza. And for a summer barbecue there’s nothing better and easier than grilled pizza, brought to you straight from your own backyard (or balcony, or fire escape) grill.
Now most people don’t have the ability to say that they have a pizza oven in their backyards. I do – well its in my dad’s backyard – and for that I feel super lucky, and incredibly grateful to my dad for all the blood, sweat, and tears (not literally), and the years (literally) of work that he’s put into building it. It really is a sight to behold, with its hand poured concrete columns, huge concrete bar, and towering brick chimney, complete with an inlayed angel statue. My dad sort of has a thing for cement and concrete work, and in fact for father’s day yesterday we actually bought him a new cement mixer – I know, what kind of dad wants a new cement mixer as his father’s day gift? Anyway, needless to say, I come from a family of pizza lovers. I have many more stories (and pictures!) coming up very soon of of his pizza oven and the wild pizza parties we throw, but until I get to my dad’s house upstate, I needed a way to satisfy my only natural (I’m Italian!) pizza cravings without the authentic pizza oven. And my answer to that? Grilled pizza.
I can’t really take the full credit for this grilled pizza with ricotta and glazed pears; a lot of it has to go to my brother, Ben, although I did help him along with a few suggestions. We have made this grilled pizza a bunch of times now, and every time we do it a little differently. Usually on grill day I leave most of the grilling to Ben, but the recipe I’m going to give you today is my personal favorite way of making this grilled pizza. Ben puts his dough on a pan or cookie sheet and then cooks it on the grill, but I like to throw my dough directly onto the grill itself and cook it that way. Both work well, and you get that great smoky taste of the grill using either technique. But I like the grill marks and slight char that I get on the dough from putting it directly onto the grill. The great thing about cooking pizza on the grill versus in the regular oven inside is that the grill mimics a pizza oven: it can get to a really high temperature, and when the dough is put right on the sizzling hot grill itself it gets that same crusty bottom as it does when it is put directly onto the hot bottom of a pizza oven.
Ok, so now lets talk about toppings for our grilled pizza. This is something me and Ben have experimented with extensively as well, and we’ve settled on a selection of toppings that we almost always use: fresh ricotta, pears, and arugula. These three are sometimes supplemented with gorgonzola, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, or honey. My personal favorite way of making this grilled pizza is to smear my grilled dough with fresh ricotta and a handful of pear slices that have been glazed with olive oil and honey. Then I throw the pizza back on the grill to let the cheese get all melted and bubbly, and when it comes off I top it with a heaping handful of arugula that has been tossed with just a tiny bit of gorgonzola. A lot of people don’t think of topping their pizza with fresh greens, but this is something my dad has been doing for years and is honestly a great way to bring a big burst of freshness to the pizza, and also a great way to trick your kids, or yourself, into eating a salad!
Grilled Pears
I think all the flavors come together perfectly in this grilled pizza. The sweetness of the honey glazed pears is offset by the sharpness of the gorgonzola, and the creamy ricotta is complemented perfectly by the peppery arugula. But you could really make this pizza any way you want. Instead of grilling the pears with honey, you can shave them thinly and throw right on top, and then finish with a drizzle of honey or balsamic vinegar. Or, try using baby spinach or watercress, which has a very similar taste to arugula, as your salad green. You could use mozzarella cheese instead of ricotta, and instead of gorgonzola you could use goat cheese or pecorino romano. Use whatever cheeses you like, love, or just happen to have on hand, and use as many of them as you like! Thats the beautiful thing about pizza: it can be made pretty much any way you like! I’m very grateful to come from a family of pizza lovers where we will figure out every way possible to cook pizza, grilled pizza included. So if you’ve never tried it in your family, this grilled pizza with ricotta and glazed pears is definitely one to make at your next barbecue.
- 1 pre-prepared pizza dough
- 7 oz ricotta cheese
- 4 cups arugula
- 1 oz gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- 2 pears, sliced into ¼ in thick slices
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper
- Preheat your grill to about 550°F
- Mix together your olive oil, honey, 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper. This is the glaze for your grilled pears; brush it liberally onto the pear slices and grill each slice for about a minute per side until they have nice grill marks, but watch them closely because the sugar in the honey can burn easily.
- Stretch out your pizza dough as thin and into whatever shape you like: we use a rectangle about the size of a cookie sheet (18in x 12in), about ¼ of an inch thick. Brush the dough with olive oil.
- At this point you can choose to transfer your dough to a cookie sheet to cook in the oven (350°F for 15 minutes until dough is cooked through), or you can cook it on the cookie sheet on the grill with the grill closed for about 10-15 minutes until your dough is cooked through. But my favorite way to cook the dough is by putting it directly onto the grill, olive oil side down. Cook the dough for about 3 minutes on the first side, using tongs to turn it occasionally to make sure it is not getting too dark in any one place. Flip the dough and cook for another two minutes on the other side, until the dough is cooked through.
- Any way you chose to cook it, now that your dough is cooked we can start topping the grilled pizza. Smear an even layer of ricotta cheese over the pizza, and top with the grilled pears. Put the pizza back on the grill (or in the oven) for another 1-2 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Toss the arugula with the crumbled gorgonzola cheese. Top the hot pizza with the fresh arugula and gorgonzola, and serve!
Leave a Reply