Yummy Lunch with a friend...

This past Friday, I invited over my good friend, Stacy, to come have lunch with me at my house! I had recently tried a recipe for margharita pizza for my husband, and it was such a success! Stacy and I love a local pizza place called Leo's, and we always get their version of the margharita pizza.  However, let's just say it's not the healthiest choice with it's white dough and pizza sauce!  Well, I wanted to show her MY version of it.

I cook this pizza on our gas grill, which makes it smoky and crispy!  You can also cook it in the oven, so I'll give the directions for that as well.

My recommendation for anything is to use FRESH when you can get it!  I'm growing my own tomatoes and basil, which not only saves money, but they always taste better too!  The tomatoes I used on this pizza came from Stacy's coworker's garden because mine aren't quite ready to pick yet!  Whenever I can, I always try to used sliced tomatoes instead of pizza sauce to eliminate that unnecessary salt and sugar.

As for the crust, I used a wheat dough. I have this great book called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, MD and Zoe Francois.  If you use their basic dough recipes, you make enough for about four loaves to use through the week.  Although I love baking breatd and kneading it, working it, watching it rise, etc- this book uses a no-knead method.   This method allows for a much quicker process, and the bread is great!  I used the Whole-Wheat Bread with Olive Oil for my dough crust.  I will include a simplifed verison of the recipe in case you want to try it!  Look on Amazon.com for this book- it's great to have in your cookbook collection! Take a look at it (just click on the pic):


Mouth-Watering Margharita Pizza:

For the crust (this will yield four loaves or crusts, so half the recipe if you don't want that much):
7 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tbsp granualted yeast (or 2 packets)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
3-1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions for the crust:
Whisk flour, yeast, salt, vital wheat gluten in a large bowl.  Add liquid ingredients and mix without kneading using a spoon, food processor with bread attachment, or stand mixer. Cover bowl with a towel and allow to rest (leave sitting on your counter) for about 2 hours, until it rises and collapses.  Dough can be used immediately or refrigerated (with a loose lid) for up to a week. When ready to cook the dough,  cut off about a grapefruit-sized ball.  Dust with flour.  Shape dough into a ball by stretching it around to the bottom on all four sides.  On a cutting board or pizza peel, flatten the dough out with your hands and then use a rolling pin to create a 1/8" thick crust.  Make sure the crust is dusted with flour on the top and bottom.  Perforate the dough with a fork (all over). 

To Make the pizza:
Handful of washed/dried fresh basil
One large homegrown tomato, sliced very thin
8 oz. of fresh mozarella, sliced thin (about 60 calories for one ounce)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Wheat crust (see above)

Preheat your gas grill with medium flames.  It should be hot enough within just a few minutes.  Take all of your ingredients outside, minus the salt and pepper.  Slide the crust directly onto the grill grates, and then close the grill.  (If you have a hard time transferring the crust, try folding it in half and the gently unfold onto the grill grates- be careful!) Wait about 2 or 3 minutes, and open the grill.  Crust should be somewhat bubbled up.  Flip the crust with a metal spatula, and then add your sliced tomatoes, basil, and then the cheese!  Drizze olive oil  over the pizza, but don't be too liberal with it.  Close the grill, and let it sit for about four or five minutes.  Once the cheese is melted and the crust is crispy- it's ready to transfer back to the cutting board or pizza peel!  (Don't forget to turn the grill off!)

Salt and pepper it to taste, and let cool for a few minutes while everyone sits around it drooling! Cut, serve, and enjoy! 

Stacy loved it!!!