Thursday, August 6, 2009

Grilled Ratatouille Pizza


Over the weekend I was flipping channels and Ratatouille was on! It's definitely one of my favorite movies. I have a soft spot in my heart for rodents... and I love food! After I watched it, I wanted to make Ratatouille, but it's more of a wintry dish, and I also have made it before...
So I thought about it for a while. Usually I take a concept or traditional food and think about how I can make it into pasta, burgers, or pizza. It's a pretty effective tool for creating a new dinner!
So pasta would pretty much be a pasta primavera, burger... I'm still thinking about... pizza sounded perfect! At first I was going to use a marinara base, but then I decided to make it even more special and use goat cheese as the sauce base. This pizza was really good, and it's pretty!


Oh, and following the recipe is a photo of what not to do with zucchini. Most vegetables are best when they're small. They're sweeter and less seedy. However, sometimes they do get lost in the garden and you don't find them until they're bigger than you! Since my last 2 posts had photos of my little sister Becky, I'm trying to even it out with one of my big sister, Kristine!
(And in a few hours, I'm sure my dad will email me asking why he's not on the blog.... what? my family? competitive? no....)


Grilled Ratatouille Pizza

crust (makes 2 12" pizzas):
1 c. warm water
1 packet dry active yeast
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 c. organic unbleached flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. EVOO

pizza:
6 oz. herbed goat cheese
1 eggplant
1 zucchini
1 summer squash
3 roma tomatoes
1 orange bell pepper
1/2 tsp. thyme
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

Add water, yeast and honey to a stand mixer bowl. Proof yeast 10 minutes.
Add flour and salt, turn mixer on low (with dough hook).
Mix for 5 minutes.
Pick up dough ball, it should be slightly sticky.
Spray the bowl with nonstick spray, place dough ball back in, cover with saran wrap.
Proof for 1 hour, punch down, proof for another hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Divide dough in half, roll out and place on a pizza sheet pan.
Place in the oven and bake for 8 minutes.
While dough cooks, slice vegetables, toss in EVOO, salt and pepper.
Grill on a grill or grill pan for 3-5 minutes per side, until grill lines appear and vegetables are a little soft (do not grill tomato)
Take pizza crust out of the oven, spread with goat cheese, layer on grilled vegetables.
Sprinkle with thyme, crushed red pepper flakes and parmesan.
Bake for another 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.



6 comments:

Kristine said...

Thank you so much for featuring me and Mammoth the zucchini. We are proud and honored to be featured on your blog. And that looks like a yummy recipe as well.

P.S. Mammoth will be delicious - not too seedy. Everything from my garden is delicious!

Anonymous said...

GREAT recipe! I actually just bought some eggplants and squash to make ratatouille myself.
And hee hee, adore that movie, too! I have the DVD, actually.

Creative Classroom Core said...

What a great way to get your veggies! Yum!

Joanne said...

I love the movie ratatouille as well, although definitely not rodents in general. I have been bitten by way too many lab mice for that. This pizza looks fabulous...I love eggplant and zucchini!

Joanna Eberhart said...

Hah, the zucchini picture is fabulous. :p

"Usually I take a concept or traditional food and think about how I can make it into pasta, burgers, or pizza. It's a pretty effective tool for creating a new dinner!"

This is a brilliant idea. Pasta, burgers, and pizza are our three favorite things here...why didn't I ever think about this?!

Jay said...

I see Kristine has a side career as a vegetable model. Is that zuke on steroids?