Summer dinners: pizzas on the grill

Jake and I have been talking about grilling pizzas pretty much since the day we purchase our new grill. Last week, we finally got around to it.

And, since I've been trying (with on-again-off-again success) to eat lower carb, we decided to walk from our house to Cosetta's Italian grocery (and restaurant) in downtown St. Paul to pick up our ingredients. If you're not familiar with St. Paul's geography, this walk, though only a mile each way, involves the trek up a GIANT hill from our neighborhood to downtown.

Not wanting to make that trek again any time soon, we picked up an extra pizza dough for the freezer. Here's my dough, stretched out on my cookie sheet (we split the dough into 4 and each made two little pizzas)

We made a quick sauce out of a can of San Marzano tomatoes seasoned with basil. This made a ton of leftover too, so I split the remainder and popped it in the freezer. I also added hot pepper flakes and sliced garlic to mine.

The toppings station: tomato sauce, basil, spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, oregano, red onion, zucchini, and fresh mozzarella

Pizza 1: basil, zucchini slices, artichoke hearts and cheese:

Pizza 2: sliced garlic, artichoke, red onion, spinach

Some tips? don't over do it on the sauce! Mine got a little wet in the process. Jake likes to use foil on the grill under the pizzas to make them easier to get on/off the grill.

The pizza was delicious, and made plenty for leftovers. And, since we had extra supplies, we'll be able to grill pizzas again sometime soon!

And, as an added bonus, I made cannolis! We picked up some shells from Cossetta (the Alessi brand ones -- they were $6 for six shells, but totally worth it). 16 oz of whole milk ricotta was enough to fill all 6, with a good amount left over. I mixed the ricotta with powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup), cinnamon (about 1 tsp), chopped chocolate and crushed pistachios, then piped into the shells. Delicious!