if you follow along on instagram, you may have caught notice of our latest obsession: grilled pizzas. my general belief in the summertime is that all good things can become even better things by being grilled, and pizza is no exception. grilled pizzas, especially with pre-made crusts, make for awesome weeknight dinners because they’re so quick and because you can put virtually anything on them and call it a meal. we’ve done grilled pizza with fresh dough, too, and it was great, but in my opinion, more trouble than it was worth unless it’s a weekend and you’ve got time for things like strategizing how to physically get a doughy fully-assembled pizza directly onto the grill. (not ready to talk about it). anyways, we’re partial to pre-made whole wheat crusts, which we’ve found in 3-packs at hy-vee as well as from a local bakery (le quartier for omaha friends) at the farmer’s market. these both freeze really well and unfreeze really fast so they’re ready to go when you need them. oh! and we really like pre-heating our pizza stone on the grill for 10ish minutes before cooking the pizza, but if you don’t go that route, just add a couple minutes of cooking time to the recipes listed below. here are three versions that we’ve cooked up so far, and more to come!

this grilled zucchini version was our most recent endeavor and might be my favorite one yet. i love the sweetness of cooked zucchini, and it tastes even better from the grill! plus, zucchini and feta were basically made for each other. 

to make: first, place thin zucchini slices on a grill plate and cook for a few minutes on each side, until softened and grill marks appear. to assemble pizza, spread a small amount of olive oil all over crust, and sprinkle with garlic salt. add mozzarella, then grilled zucchini slices, then crumbled feta. grill on pre-heated pizza stone until cheese is melted and crust is crisp, about 5-8 minutes. garnish with thinly-sliced sweet thai basil, black pepper, and sea salt.

we’re not big super-saucy pizza people, so we usually opt for pesto or even just olive oil and garlic instead. i picked up some sundried tomato pesto recently, and made this margherita-with-a-twist version. 

to make: spread sundried tomato pesto all over crust. then, top with mozzarella and black cherry heirlooms (or other cherry tomato – but this variety is to die for). grill on a pre-heated pizza stone until cheese is melted and crust is crisp, about 5-8 minutes. garnish with thinly-sliced fresh basil, baby arugula, and pink sea salt that looks really fancy but is really like $2.99 at trader joe’s.

this was one of our first attempts at grilled pizza and is still one of my favorites. i mean, it has burrata, which is basically cheese inside cheese, so what’s not to love?

to make: spread traditional basil pesto all over crust. top with mozzarella, slices of burrata, and yellow cherry tomatoes (like sun golds). grill on a pre-heated pizza stone until cheese is melted and crust is crisp, about 5-8 minutes. garnish with a drizzle of chili oil and sea salt.

i feel a little silly posting this as a recipe because a) this is not the first naan pizza “recipe” i’ve posted and b) i think everyone knows pizzas are really more of a throw some shiz on your choice of crust and bake it and chances are it’ll turn out decent more than they are actually a recipe. but i always love finding new pizza combinations that work well and i also think that homemade or halfway-homemade pizzas are one of the easiest cures to eating out, so i thought i would share!

obviously in order for it to be a pizza you’ll need some kind of crust. making your own is a great option for a weekend or if you’re going to freeze a big batch or if you have more patience than me, but let’s be honest, ain’t nobody got time for pizza dough to rise on a weeknight. we don’t want anyone getting hangry, right? right.

the next best choice would seem to be pre-made fresh crusts – i know for sure that trader joe’s and whole foods both sell a few versions, but to be honest, i’ve never had much luck. i’ve gotten them to work, but usually that requires much longer resting and/or baking times than what’s advertised on the instructions, and that defeats the purpose.

which leads us to the whole wheat naans and tortillas of the world, which all make for completely respectable pizza crust options because a) they contain carbs (requirement #1 for all pizzas), and b) they bake quickly.

we make a lot of these kinds of pizzas around here, but this combination we threw together a few weeks ago really knocked it out of the park and set the bar high for future summery pizzas to come. i think that it’s elevated deliciousness was mainly owed to two ingredients: whole milk mozzarella and chili oil. admittedly, i always buy the part-skim mozzarella without thinking twice about it, but recently, we saw a whole milk version at whole foods and thought we’d give it a shot. holy mozzarolly, you guys. SO GOOD. so creamy and milky and whole. forget about whatever diet you’re on, jump on the full-fat dairy train, and get some of this for your next pizza/grilled cheese/midnight snack/etc. secondly, the chili oil. every dish needs that extra something to make it pop – something acidic, something salty, something spicy. for this dish, it’s something spicy, and it’s the chili oil. you can pick up a bottle of this for a few bucks at your regular grocery store (or maybe make your own by combining regular olive oil with crushed red pepper and letting it develop for a few days?). we’ve been adding a little bit atop pizzas and pastas, into vinaigrettes, and pretty much everything else lately – it’s that perfect amount of heat that even kevin can handle, ha! happy pizza making!

ingredients

-2 whole wheat naan breads
-garlic hummus
-roasted red peppers (from a jar at TJ's)
-baby heirloom tomatoes (i love the multicolor ones at TJ's, but any cherry/grape tomatoes will do)
-whole milk mozzarella, shredded
-fresh arugula
-salt and pepper
-chili oil

directions

preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

build your pizzas: layer each naan bread first with hummus, then shredded mozzarella, then roasted red peppers and tomatoes.

bake for 8-10 minutes or until crispy around the edges and cheese has melted.

after baking, add fresh arugula to each pizza, season with salt + pepper, and pour a small amount of chile oil on each. serves 2. enjoy!

regrettably i’ve never been much of a salad person. you know, it’s like, i like the idea of eating a salad, but i don’t actually want to eat it. i blame the way too many browning iceberg lettuce salads with mushy cherry tomatoes and ranch dressing that i consumed during my years at Creighton in lieu of the other even less appetizing options. anyways, so, i’m working on the salad thing and i enjoy coming up with less traditional combinations that don’t feel quite as in-your-face-salady.

i’d like to say i thought this one through and had it all planned out in my head, but, like 90% of the time when i come up with the recipes that i share here, it was more of a function of what we had what was going bad in the fridge. a half head of radicchio from a salad earlier in the week, a giant bag of brussies that i had big plans for that never came to fruition, some scallions on their last leg. i kind of threw everything together in hopes that it would work, and it totally did! i love salads that have both raw and cooked components, so i kept the radicchio and scallions as-is but sautéed the sprouts in some garlic and olive oil to give the salad a little complexity. this salad would work just fine with a basic olive oil & balsamic dressing, but i took an extra step and added some lemon juice and red pepper mustard, which turned out to be great additions. we had this salad along with roasted salmon, quinoa, and our first glasses of sauvignon blanc of the season, and it was a wonderful combo and the perfect spring meal to enjoy out on the patio.