Sunday, August 22, 2010

Gregorino & Kristina's Pizzeria

Mr. G and I have been married for 31 years, come September 1st.  In all of those years, I have done all of the cooking.  And gladly, I love to cook.  But since becoming empty nesters, and finding that we have the time to do so, we have been enjoying cooking together.  It seems like every week, we plan something new to cook together on the weekend.  We shop together for the ingredients, and then scour recipes and cookbooks, and then make a big mess in the kitchen.  Today, we made 5 home made pizzas, on the grill.  We started with our weekly trip to Sam's this morning.  Then made a pit stop at Fresh & Easy.  Finishing up at Bed, Bath & Beyond to purchase pizza crisping pans.  We bought two, and had a shoot out.  Both proved to be very good pans, and delivered a crispy, perfectly cooked crust.
Mr. G. made his home made pizza dough, and left it to rise.
I made two home made sauces.  First a pesto sauce.
And then made a cilantro pesto sauce.  Made basically the same way as a traditional pesto, but no pine nuts.  Just cilantro, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt, pulse in cuisinart, then stream in Olive Oil til right consistency is reached.  Boy, I thought I loved pesto, but this.....was......fantastic!  The flavor was amazing.
The two pizzas with the homemade dough we put onto the new crisper pans.  First dusting them with cornmeal.
Then pressing the dough into the pans.   Then they were each cooked on the grill for 4 min. before we added the toppings.
We also used something called NAAN bread to make two of the smaller pizzas, and a rustic sourdough pizza crust for one of the pizzas.  Five pizzas in all.  On the NAAN bread, we did bbq chicken. 
Wow...were these ever good!!!   There were pizzas coming in, and flying back out to the grill for a good 45 minutes.  Each pizza taking about 10 minutes to cook.
The pizza tasters were busy trying each different type that came in off the grill.  They give it thumbs up!!
Every single one was delicous.  BBQ Chicken, Pesto with chicken, cremini mushrooms, bell peppers, veggie on  rustic sourdough, but the best...the most flavorful, the one that most all of us called the number 1, was the cilantro pizza, on the home made dough, with crumbled goat cheese, roasted red peppers, garlic, onion, and mushrooms.  Wow!  SO good!!  I don't even think I got a picture of that one.  Trust me though, it was good!!!  What fun we had.
I leave you with a couple shots of the sunflowers in my kitchen.
I hope you will try making home made pizza in your own kitchen.
Bon Appetit!

12 comments:

Debbie said...

Oh Kris these ALL sound soo heavenly...yum yum yuummmm.....I have a feeling the home made crust one would have to be best, but when you add on the homemade cilantro and the rest of those goodies, now you've gone orbital. I am (as always) soo impressed with your energy and drive. Have a WONDERFUL Monday...

~Niki~ said...

wow! you DO cook! looks so yummy! amazin'

Genn said...

Thanks again for feeding us all of that delicous pizza Gregorino and Kristina!! They were really really good. My favorite was the bbq chicken and next was the cilantro pesto with the yummy mushrooms and goat cheese. It was fun!

Lauri said...

it never occured to me to do pizza on the grill. BRILLIANT!!! I'm going to fire up the barbeque and give it a try.

NanaNor's said...

Hi there, Like Laurie I never thought about cooking pizza on a grill-great idea. Love your different pizzas too, I'm a big fan of bbq chicken pizza. Now if I could find gluten free dough and get hubby to like it I'd be set.
Have a wonderful week Kris.
Hugs, Noreen

Katie said...

Are the Pizza Crisper Pans made specifically for cooking pizza on the grill?? We are having all of Sean's Lt's over for dinner this weekend, I think I will do this!!! Looked Delicious!!!

Pam said...

The pizzas sound wonderful... I am loving the cilantro pesto!

Jennifer said...

You guys reign supreme as pizza makers...even your descriptions and combinations make me hungry - and, honestly, I'm not even that much of a pizza fan?!?! Might have something to do with not being able to find "really good" pizza!

Now if you could just find a way to ship one of those to me!!:)

Charlee said...

We make homemade pizza once a week I have to say that pizza dough in a breadmaker is pretty good as well! My hubby won't go outside the box so I do traditional style pizza yours looks so good I may have to do that when he is gone :)

Linda said...

Those look delicious. Don and I love to cook together...we have been doing it our whole marriage. He loves to cook and happily my sons do too! We have tried pizza on many types of toppings. It is always wonderful, but we always cook it in the oven...we are going to have to try grilling it! Thanks for sharing that idea:)

Cathy said...

How wonderful that you enjoy cooking together. That makes it so much more fun and enjoyable. I'm going to have to try grilling my pizza again. I think I like oven cooking the best.

Debbiedoos said...

Pizza on the grill is awesome. I love when my husband is in the kitchen, just makes me smile:)