Hail Caesar BLT Pizza

Jason at Ancient Fire Wines issued a challenge.  A pizza challenge.  Using a Boboli crust.  On the grill.  Goodness.  I've never done a pizza on the grill before.  But, I keep reading how good they are.  And, I've never used a Boboli crust.  So, two new things.  How much fun is that?  My mind went back to that wonderful grilled lettuce I made the other day.  And, some bacon I made several months ago that had ground pepper and garlic on it.  BLT pizza.  But, it couldn't be ordinary BLT pizza.  Had to take it up a notch.  How to do that?  Chef Dennis suggested drizzling the grilled lettuce with oil-based caesar dressing.  That might just work. The big question was, did I have a jar of TJ's (Trader Joe's) pizza sauce or did I need to make my own.  I was hoping for the former because I'd already left the office pretty late (on a Sunday no less!) and really didn't want to do anything but make the pizza.  My luck held out.  A jar of TJ's was in the last row of the pantry.  Connie hunted and couldn't find it.  But, I had the advantage.  I knew what size and shape jar I was looking for and felt back there until I found it.  Have I mentioned that we turned our laundry room into a pantry?  We're talking PANTRY here.  Unless you know where things are it's a major pain in the tookus to find anything.  Just in case you're wondering, we took a closet upstairs and turned it into the laundry room.  Pretty cool.  No walking up and down stairs with anything but the voluminous basket of dirty dish towels.  Ugh, I've had enough of the laundry this week.  Kids visiting.  Lots of extra towels and sheets.  I hate laundry.  Let's get off that subject!  So, back to cooking...  We really enjoyed this pizza.  Connie probably would've enjoyed it more had I doubled the bacon and halved the tomatoes.  He does not share my addiction to tomatoes.  He does, however, consider pork fat to be one of the primary food groups.  He and Emeril would get along really well. 

Hail Caesar BLT Pizza

Ingredients:

1 Boboli pizza crust
1 jar pizza sauce
9 slices thick cut smoked bacon
garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper
2 tomatoes, diced
1 8 oz package shredded mozzarella
1 heart of romaine, cut in half lengthwise
5 anchovies
2 T olive oil
1/2 t dijon mustard
1/2 t garlic paste

Directions:

Lay the bacon in a skillet.  Sprinkle it generously with garlic powder and pepper.

When the first side down is nice and brown, flip the bacon and sprinkle the 2nd side generously with garlic powder and pepper.  Once the bacon is done, remove it from the skillet and drain it well.  Set it aside.


While the bacon is cooking, make the caesar dressing.  Melt five anchovies into the olive oil.  Add the garlic and dijon and whisk it well.  Set it aside.

Put the pizza crust on a cookie sheet. Set up all your other ingredients so you're ready to go.  You'll notice I sprinkled the tomato ends with salad elegante and grilled them too.  Then, we just plain grilled the corn.  Sprinkled it with Italian dressing as it came off the grill. YUM! 

Pour some of the pizza sauce on it.  Eyeball it.  Just enough to schmear to the edges but not enough to be gooey.

Sprinkle the chopped tomatoes on top.

Then dice the bacon (use a scissors, it's much quicker) and sprinkle it over the tomatoes. 

Take the pizza to the grill and slide it onto the grate. 

You're better off if you use the middle of the grill and really lower the heat there.  We're fortunate to have a grill with six burners.  We used the four outside ones.  Once the pizza is nice and hot, sprinkle the mozzarella on top.  You want it to melt so close the grill lid.  When the pizza is about done (hint, there'll be wonderful grill marks on the bottom - wish I'd gotten a photo of those! - and the cheese will be all melty and wonderful) brush the lettuce with olive oil and put it on the grill.  Flip the lettuce after about 30 seconds to a minute - depending on how brown it's getting. 

Remove the pizza from the grill. Chop the grilled lettuce.  Sprinkle the pizza with the lettuce then drizzle the whole deal with the caesar dressing.

We do love eating out on the screened porch.  Even when it's hot and muggy.  It's so gorgeous out there!

Dinner on the Grill - Roasted Lettuce

That title shouldn't be surprising since our grill seems to be in constant use all year round.  We've gotten in trouble a couple of times trying to cook something that needs to cook for quite a while - when it's the middle of winter and the grill has a tough time keeping the heat up.  I think there was a time that a roasted chicken took about three times as long to cook as it should have.  Oh, well, the joys of experimenting!  This time, though, our experiment had far better results.  While my stepsons (Greg and Matt) and Greg's girlfriend, Mary, were here visiting we went on a culinary tour of Indianapolis.  One of our stops was a delightful place that is now called Klaus'.  They specialize in all manner of smoked meats - along with some other really good meats.  I got one of everything in the smoked sausage arena, plus three fresh sausages. 

Those along with roasted corn on the cob and a salad would be dinner.  The grill was hot, why not try roasted romaine for the salad?  I made a quick creamy balsamic vinaigrette with loads of finely shredded romano to go on top and they were incredible!  I think next time I'll try blue cheese and maybe some chopped, roasted tomatoes from the garden...

Roasted Lettuce

1/2 heart of romaine per person
olive oil
dressing of your choice

Cut the lettuce in half lengthwise.  Brush them on both sides with olive oil.  Grill for 30 seconds per side over relatively high heat.  Grill them just until the lettuce starts to turn brown.