After 11 days of scorching sweltering heat our current heat wave has finally ended, and not a moment to soon! Saturday our temp peaked at 101, two degrees short of the record set in 2010, but with the heat index it felt like 108. Do we really need the heat index? It’s bad enough that they torture us with the wind chill factor in the winter time, but now they have to tell us how hot it actually feels…….really? Can’t we leave well enough alone and just say it was 101? Do we really need to factor in humidity, and what ever else they add in to let us know its even hotter than we think it is? Welcome to the modern world, where you can never have too much information……sigh
Lisa keeps reminding me that we want to move to Florida where it’s even hotter and more humid in the summer time ( I tell her we’ll get use to it, when I know we won’t). But Lisa’s not that worried about the heat, she preoccupied with the thought of all the alligators, lizards, snakes and armadillo’s…….now I can understand the alligators, and snakes, and maybe even the lizards….but armadillo’s? I keep telling her that they have all that armor for a reason….there slow and they can’t see. Granted if you try to pick one up and make it a pet it might get a little perturbed and use it’s very strong claws on you, but for the most part they just don’t bother anyone. It seems the only danger from armadillo’s is eating them under cooked, and I don’t think we have to worry about armadillo becoming a part of our diet any time soon.
Well enough about the heat and the armadillo’s let’s move on to last nights dinner!
I got out early Saturday morning to beat the heat and the crowds at out farmers market, but it seems I wasn’t the only one with the idea, it was packed! The market was full of fresh local fruit and vegetables, (we’re still waiting for field grown Jersey tomatoes) it was a glorious sight! Along with the produce we also have a nice assortment of other culinary delights, with a free range meat and egg vendor, and a clam truck, selling little necks and top neck clams. Normally I buy our clams at Wegman’s every week, and for farm raised clams they’re pretty darn good, and very consistent. I bought a bag of little necks and it’s been so long since I’ve had wild caught clams that I’d forgotten just how good they were! Needless to say, I’ll be buying clams at the farmers market for the rest of the summer!
But of course the highlight of my day was finally finding my precious at our farmer’s market! The first blossoms of the year are always a special treat, and we savored each and every bite! If you’d like the recipe for my blossoms, click on this link, Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of my precious in weeks to come!
With the weather as hot as it’s been, I’ve been a little reluctant to turn on the oven, and of course that being said, I was in the mood for pizza. I’ve seen grilled pizza here and there, but not being a master griller, I thought I would try my hand at a more conventional approach using my pizza stone. I heated my grill using all four burners and then shut down the middle two to use a more indirect method of heating. Well, that didn’t work as well as I hoped, after 12 minutes the pizza still wasn’t done, so I cranked up the other two burners and that did the trick. I got some great color on the pie, and the bottom of the pizza was almost perfect.
I’ll keep working on my technique and tweak the dough the recipe a bit, but I don’t think I’ll be making pizza’s in the house anymore, the grill really did a great job! I did unfortunately find out that Lisa doesn’t like white pies, and my ricotta cheese pizza was not a big hit. You think after 12 years I’d know that……sigh. And of course if momma ain’t happy, nobody happy! Luckily the squash blossoms made up for it.
- 2 cups all purpose flour 240 gm
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast 8 gm
- 1 tsp sea salt 5 gm
- 1 1/4 cup warm water 300 ml
- 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil 30 ml
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- sprinkle of sea salt
- sprinkle of black pepper
- 2 Tbs grated romano cheese 30 gm
- 1 large tomato sliced
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 110 gm
- place the water, olive oil and yeast in the bowl of your mixer and allow yeas to sit for a few minutes. (water should be about body temperature)
- Using your dough hook, add the flour and the salt and begin mixing.
- mix for about two minutes, then turn out the dough onto a floured work area and knead the dough for a few minutes.
- The dough should be fairly dry and elastic when finished kneading.
- Divide dough into two balls, and allow to rest for about two hours (or overnight in the fridge)
- dough will rise slightly but you won't see a dramatic change.
- When ready to make your pizza, flour your work area and flatten one of the dough balls*
- As the dough spreads out, make the outer circle of the crust , using your fingers to make the indentations around the circle.
- begin stretching the dough out until you have about a 12-14 inch circle.
- It's okay if the dough isn't perfectly round, its rustic!
- sprinkle some corn meal on your pizza peel and lay the formed dough on the peel
- spread the ricotta cheese on the dough, then season with salt, pepper, and grated romano cheese.
- Add tomato slices then top with shredded mozzarella.
- Bake in a 450 degree oven or your closed grill until the dough has gotten nice brown color, and the bottom of the pizza is fully cooked.
- Slice into 6 slices, top with chopped fresh basil and serve!
This week looks to be cooler with temperatures only reaching the high 80’s which is where the temps should be this time of year. Lisa and I will be making our first trip down to Florida this week as we begin our search for our retirement home (that doesn’t sound right, but you know what I mean). We won’t have time to visit with the Mouse this trip although we will be staying at Port Orleans, so we will get a little taste of Disney. After all it is the happiest place on earth…sigh
Have a happy week!
We have armadillos in Texas. They don’t do anything but eat your garden.
It’s the possums you have to worry about. I wonder if Florida has possums??? 😉
Your pizza looks AMAZING!!!
we have possums in New Jersey, they are a bit on the strange side!
Beautiful post Dennis! Both the pizza and the blossoms look amazing!
The pizza sounds delicious. I was so excited to get a grill with the patio at my new apartment and I haven’t even used it yet! Maybe this will be motivation 🙂
I love zucchini blossoms! They’re delicate and a wonderful treat that makes me think of summer. My dad would batter them and then fry zucchini and squash in flour/egg/crumbs along side of them. It’s not summer til there’s fried squash & blossoms! mmm…
I have squash blossom envy and that pizza looks divine! Love the idea of throwing it on the grill, will definitely be trying!
squash blossoms are one of my summer favorites – I’ve always wanted to make my own, yours looks like a good recipe to try!
thanks for sharing and stay cool, stay clear of the armadillos 😉
Having lived in Florida for the last six monfhs, I can add rafher large frobs fo your list. 🙂
But, it never gets too hot not have great pizza!!
Chef Dennis, I hope you and Lisa have a great trip to Florida! Let us know how it goes 🙂 It makes me happy knowing you found your precious!!! Every time I see the blossoms whether it is at a store, a market or on TV they always remind me of you.
Enjoy your week!
Your pizza looks delicious and we’ve gotten to where we use the grill most of the time. With many available male blooms on my plants I really need to try the stuffed blooms.
I feel the same way about the heat index. Once the temp gets above 100 I don’t care how hot it feels – hot is hot! The pizza looks amazing, Chef! And those zucchini blossoms – truly tempting!
Wonderful combinations…. but please don’t eat the armadillos… they are so adorable! We have possums all over and they are kind of cute too.. guess I have a varmint crush!
Squash blossoms are in the air these days and the market. Stuffing them and grilling them or au naturel.. delish –– I don’t think you can go wrong with them.
what a pretty pizza, and an excellent use of ricotta! cheese, tomato, and basil. does it get any better than that?
What about squash blossoms on top of the pizza? Both look fabulous and that would just be an amazing combo!
oh I’ll definitely be getting to that later! Squash blossom pizza sounds like a wonderful idea!
i’m on Lisa’s side…no alligators please. 🙂 I’ve never been able to find squash blossoms. I think I’m going to have to grow my own plants just to pick them. I need to learn how to grill pizza also. I think I”m afraid. You’ve given me inspiration. Looks great for your first try.
Hola Dennis! I just took a break from painting my house, and I am left mouth watered with this delicious pizza. It looks very tasty!
What a great pairing you have here! The zucchini blossoms look amazing and the tomato pizza looks so inviting. I must make this for my family. Bookmarking this one. Thanks again, Chef Dennis! Stay cool 🙂
The idea of ricotta on grilled pizza sounds amazing. Should try it, though our grilling season is far away, the oven stone might do a nice job. LOL on the armadillo story!
Chef Dennis, your grilled pizza looks like it turned out wonderfully. Also smiling about your armadillo observations! We have ’em here, but they keep their distance. Maybe if I grill some pizza, they’ll come closer. 🙂
Don’t retire to Florida, retire to the PNW! We have no armadillos and LOTS of wild, fresh shellfish. Also not a lot of heat to get used to. It’s perfect. I am planning to stuff zucchini blossoms this year, but they are slow in coming and I’m getting impatient. Yours look so delicious.
I really have to check out your blossoms recipe, I love those and always have them if I can at a local place I love to go to. They stuff them with some sort of ricotta mixture..
Great meal!
Ha! I live in FL and the only time I see armadillos is when they are roadkill on the side of the road :/
I love white pizzas so this is right down my alley!
That pizza looks awesome. I’m drooling at the computer screen!
Oh, how I wish we could share some of your heat. Maybe not all of it… but I’ll take a few degrees off of your hands! We have been gray, drizzly and dreary for weeks and I’m SO ready for summer!
As for the pizza on the grill, I don’t do it any other way!
Not sure if you need to work on your technique because this looks good as is…
I need to try grilling a pizza. And I really need to try squash blossoms!! So much to do and what to do first?!