Rustic Grilled Peaches Pizza – or Murphy’s Pizza!

If anything could go wrong during the making of that pizza, it did! I’m telling you, it was cursed. It’s like it was Murphy’s idea of a pizza... seriously.

I had meant to cook that one on the BBQ. After all, it’s been such a beautiful week, we didn’t get any rain, it’s been warm and humid, and sunny, and HOT. Keyword here, sunny! We got loads of sunshine all week. Perfect time to fire up the grill!

But of course, as soon as I go and fire up that BBQ, thunder starts to growl, the sky opens up and it starts to POUR, but I mean POUR! So much so, my grill wouldn’t even heat up.

But you know, my dough was good and ready, I had been caramelizing my onions for over 20 minutes, my balsamic reduction was almost ready to go, my peaches were all sliced and ready to hit the grill… Mind you, they too, gave me a bit of a hard time. They just refused to part with their pits! How is one supposed to slice peaches nicely when they had to fight them to get the pit out? Thank goodness I was going for a rustic look for that one… If I’d been going for the clean and tidy look of my ratatouille pizza, I think I’d have been in for a change of plan!

So anyway, the BBQ is trying its best to pick up some heat while the sky is throwing buckets of water at it and I am all ready to make pizza! I decided to wait it out, give it a couple of minutes, but still, started the oven for backup, just in case. As if it wasn’t hot and humid enough as it was.

Finally, after about 15 minutes, the rain starts to subside and the needle on the grill finally starts to climb. I turn off the oven, which was almost hot enough at that point, and revert to plan A.

I go out in the rain, dough in hand, throw it on the grill, close the lid and head back inside, ‘cuz it’s still raining, you know. I pick up my onions and mozzarella cheese, start to clean up a bit, then it hits me. SHOOT! I forgot to lower the heat. I grab my thongs, run back outside, open the lid and flip my dough.

Great! It’s half burnt. Damn rain!

Quick quick, I lower the heat, lay my caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese, then close the lid again. Run back inside the house, ‘cuz it’s still raining you know…

I try and arrange a little set-up, but realize there won’t be much time for that, that pizza is cooking way too quickly. Bah, I’ll make do with my cutting board, there, the one with the peaches waiting… DOH!!! THE PEACHES!!! I forgot to grill my peaches!

I run back outside to get those peaches on the grill, see that my pizza is ready, so I take it out and place it on my cutting board. Guess that’ll have to do for a set-up. I’ll just grab a piece of parchment paper and put it underneath. Of course, the box was unopened and wouldn’t cooperate with me, neither would the parchment paper itself. It just ripped all over. Great!

Now I have to run back outside to get my peach slices, but I have to check on the dogs and make sure they don’t touch my pizza. I try and coax them to follow me outside, but there’s just no way they will comply. Hey, I mean, come on, “it’s raining, can’t you see?” Ridgebacks do NOT like rain. Don’t even try and get them to go out in the rain.

I finally manage to get that pizza done and am ready to start taking a couple of shots. Well, guess what? The sun comes out!!! Just like that! Goodbye rain, hello sunshine.

Well, at least, I got this BEAUTIFUL light to take my pictures. I mean, who could tell that this pizza was actually done in the rain?

It was finally time to sit down and enjoy that fabulous pizza when I realize that I had forgotten to add the toasted walnuts that were part of the original inspiration. Seriously! Is there anything I DIDN’T forget to add? Well, I took the time to toast some and added them. So they might not be in the pictures, but they were definitely on the pizza that I ate. 😉

What’s the verdict after all that?

Other than the fact that it burned “a little”, it was absolutely spectacular. What an awesome flavor combination. The caramelized onions with the grilled peaches, the blue cheese, toasted walnuts, fresh sage, arugula and balsamic vinegar reduction, all that blended just perfectly.

I think I will be making another one soon, when it doesn’t rain!

Because seriously, I tell you, Murphy’s pizza was [almost] perfect!

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

• ¼ Whole wheat pizza crust recipe

TOPPINGS

• 1 large onion, sliced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 75g low fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 peach, sliced
• 25g blue cheese, crumbled
• 25g toasted walnuts, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh sage, chopped
• fresh arugula leaves, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the onions with a little bit of salt and pepper, until they are very soft and caramelized, about 20-25 minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons of water from time to time to help deglaze the pan and soften the onion. Always wait until all the water has evaporated before adding more.
• In a small saucepan, bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until you are left with only about a tablespoon of vinegar. This should take about 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat your grill to medium high heat
• Roll or stretch dough into 10-12 inch disc. Brush one side lightly with olive oil. Make sure you have all your topping ready at this point.
• Throw your pizza dough on the hot grill and lower the heat to medium. Lay your peach slices next to your pizza dough. Close the lid and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
• Flip your pizza dough and top it with caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese. Flip your peach slices, close the lid and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes, until cheese starts to melt.
• Remove pizza from the grill and top with peach slices, blue cheese crumbles, toasted walnuts, fresh sage and arugula.
• Drizzle balsamic reduction, cut into wedges and enjoy!