One Local Summer 2007, Grilled Pizza
I needed just a sip of fortification before I got down to business making my first One Local Summer meal. Yesterday was hot, sticky, still, stagnant and stinky. Work sucked the spirit out of me. An iced vodka tonic spritzed me back into shape.
The only thing local in the drink is the ice and the strawberries. But having the drink brought me back home to a local state of mind. Before that I was at the mercy of the waxing moon and Mercury in retrograde, reeling from the confusion and disorganization at work, the total lack of direction that accompanied so many marching orders.
For my first meal, I wanted to go to my local grocery store with a recipe in mind and see what ingredients I could find. My goal: whole grain crust pizza on the grill with a big salad.
I already had the salad covered, the greens beds are just bursting with tender leaves. Anything in the mustard family is quickly going to seed, however, as is the spinach, so I pulled the whole plants, snipped the leaves and tossed the stems to the chickens. Cluck, cluck, yum. Is it too late in the season to start more lettuce? I’m going to give it a try. Fill in the empty spots in the boxes.
So grocery shopping at the local ACME for local ingredients was as disappointing as I expected, but held one surprise. Tucked into the corner of the small fancy cheese case, four or five balls of organic mozzarella. I picked one up, expecting to see California or New Jersey, but no! Right there on the bottom of the front label, Cleveland area dairies! Made in Cleveland, a mere 40 miles from my doorstep. I mentally high-fived the ACME purchasing director for giving local producers a spot in the case. Local and organic.
The flour aisle also had a few choices. I would have been shocked to find locally milled flour. The nearest was central Illinois, non-organic, 50/50 whole grain and white flour. I figure it’s about four or five hundred miles, and I raised my bar for next time. I’ll buy from Frankferd Farms with the neighborhood buying club I got invited to join. They’re 96 miles from my home, in Pennsylvania. They do organic flours, milled on-site with locally sourced grains.
I started the dough (my favorite from Amy’s Bread, but with half whole wheat flour. I used my own young garlic (chopped and worked into the dough with a little cayenne, kosher salt and oregano,) harvested last weekend from the garden at the old house. There’s at least a hundred more bulbs in the ground there (second year plants) that I’ll pull up after the flowers open.
I sliced the zucchini and yellow crookneck, from the Saturday market, into thin ovals, then tossed them with a bit of olive oil and grilled it them. The dough made enough for 3 pizzas. Grill one side of the dough first, turning it to change the direction of the markings, then flip it, brush with olive oil, add toppings.
I was in a bit of a panic about the sauce, but then remembered that I had one more quart jar of slow-roasted tomatoes from 2005. Oh, joy! Juanne Flammées! I couldn’t believe how fresh they tasted after two years in a jar in a basement. Unbelievable.
I sprinkled the grated cheese, dotted it with the grilled squash, the tomatoes, chopped basil and oregano, and a little kosher salt.
I’ll get my food miles lower for next week, but for a first try, I’m very happy with the results. And with the leftovers I had for lunch today!
"Grass is the cheapest plant to install and the most expensive to maintain."
~Pat Howell
June 28th, 2007 at 12:02 am
First I was excited to find out you had a recipe for whole grain pizza dough and thought, “perfect, I’ll ask for the recipe!” Then, I saw the link and thought, “wonderful, a good recommendation for a cookbook!” Then, ack! Amy’s cookbook is sold out, so I can’t get it or the recipe. Care to share?? I can always use more exclamation points!! (btw, we LOVE grilled pizza - mmm!)
June 28th, 2007 at 7:53 am
That’s a beautiful pizza—I’m in the local flour quandary as well.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:28 am
that pic of the garlic is amazing!!
June 28th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
What a gorgeous pizza, Kelly!
June 28th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
fantastic!! I grilled pizzas last night too and promptly forgot to take pictures so we’ll see what I come up with tomorrow with camera in tow. I’m loving the drink!
June 28th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
and no, it’s not too late for another planting of lettuce. I just replanted a few days ago and hope to continue in to fall as long as I can. That damn mercury retrograde has been nasty this week.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I’ve never done pizza on the grill but I hear it’s great. We’ve got a pile of zucchini and yellow crooknecks from our CSA, and this sounds SO good.
July 1st, 2007 at 8:26 am
Oh, that looks divine. All of it.
July 1st, 2007 at 10:06 am
Kelly, I like the fact that you listed the process of this meal. For the most part, I just go with what’s on hand, but you were determined! Thanks, then, for listing the nitty gritty: people doing the challenge need to hear that there may be a bit of (sometimes fruitless) legwork involved. Your hard work certainly looks like it paid off, though…yum.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:26 am
Kathy, I got my hands on some summertime lettuce, so will plant that in the hopes that it will handle the heat and humidity of July and August in Ohio. Ok. Back to the garden I go!
July 1st, 2007 at 11:27 am
Merseydotes, it is sooooo yum. I recommend finishing the pizza with some coarse salt and cracked pepper, after brushing it with garlic infused olive oil. Just amazing.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:30 am
El, thanks for noticing the legwork! I’m very aware of the importance of bringing the food miles closer to home, but the more I learn, the more I realize how much more work there is to do. But once the interest is there, it just becomes a personal challenge for me to find the next thing locally. Then the next. Newcomers should know that it can’t be done overnight, and that every dollar they switch out from the big box grocery store to the small, local grower or producer, the better spent that dollar… Oh, what a poorly constructed sentence!
Anyway…thanks so much for commenting. Off to check out your blog!
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Nice looking pizza! What was that organic mozzarella? I’m from Cleveland and I want to look for it.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Hey, folks- those of you in the Midwest might want to look for Eden Organic products. Their beans and tomatoes come from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and some from Ontario. Not as good as the farmers’ market, but better than California for mid-winter tomatoes! The origins of a few other “supermarket” brands can be found at http://foodorigins.wikispaces.com/ .