A delicious grill recipe with fresh peppers. So easy!
If you like your pizza crust with an extra crunch, you can pre-bake it without toppings (or only tomato sauce) for about 5 minutes in the preheated oven.
If you plan on topping your pizza with a lot of fatty meats or juicy vegetables, brushing on a thin layer of olive oil base can help with containing the moisture during baking.
Raw or fatty meats aren’t going to get fully cooked from a few minutes atop a pizza in the oven. Always pre-cook and drain vegetables that release water while cooking, such as mushrooms.
Exceptions: thin cut pepperoni and prosciutto and some thinly sliced vegetables are fine to top raw.
Use the dough right out of the refrigerator and don’t let it sit on the countertop for too long.
Unroll and keep dough on parchment paper while baking. Paper is oven safe up to 500°F and paper will brown during baking. Cut off or tuck excess paper under the dough, so it isn’t hanging over the baking sheet.
Cutting the dough: If you need to cut the dough, place it on a cutting board to avoid scratching your baking sheet or countertop. If cutting the dough on the baking sheet, ideally use a pizza cutter.
To unroll the dough, remove dough from package and gently separate the dough and parchment paper from the roll, so that the dough on paper begins to lay flat. Be careful not to separate the dough from the parchment paper. There may be some sticking, but the dough and paper should easily pull away from the roll.
Once the dough is lying flat on the baking tray, cut off or tuck any excess paper under, so it does not hang over the edge.
The fastest way to a crispy and chewy crust is cooking the dough directly on a heated surface. Make sure the oven is fully preheated and already hot. A pizza stone or even a simple sheet pan needs ample time to pre-heat. Pizza and Flatbread can also be cooked on a non-heated sheet pan, but always in a pre-heated oven.
You can brush the dough edges with olive oil. Do it right before it goes in the oven and/or right after it comes out. You'll get great color, crunch and flavor.
1. Mix Ricotta with 2 Tbsp. green pesto and add salt and pepper to taste. Heat up grill to medium-hot or preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Unroll the refrigerated Classic Pizza and leave it on parchment paper to season. Cut in 2 strips, lengthwise, and brush with 2 Tbsp. green pesto.
3. Fill ricotta mixture in tubing bag (or plastic bag with corner cut off) and tube filling as a ½ in.-thick string on the dough strips. Cut pepper in thin strips and put on top of filling. Then, half the filled dough strips in the middle (to get about 10in. x 2in. rectangles).
4. Press wooden skewers into one side of each rectangle before you flip the dough lengthwise to cover the filling. The skewers should stick out about 2 inches when the dough is folded.
5. On the opposite side of the skewer, slice the dough in 2 in. pieces. Flip every other piece to the other side of the skewer, creating a garland look.
6. Brush with egg-wash and grill on grill pan, covered, for 10 min. total, or bake for 12-14 min in a regular oven. Brush with more pesto after baking (optional), and serve warm.