Grilled Caprese Pizzas with Herbed Crust and Balsamic Reduction

I’ve made this recipe many times but I tweak it each time. I think it’s finally ready to share with you! It requires a bit of prep work but the end result is oh-so-tasty and perfect for summer. It’s my twist on the classic caprese salad. This pizza has a fragrant herbed crust that’s grilled, so it’s nice and crispy (and the closest thing you’ll get to brick oven style pizza at home). If you’ve never grilled pizza, once you try it, you’ll never make homemade pizza any other way! It’s topped with roasted roma tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil, then finished with a drizzle of sweet balsamic reduction.

This pizza pairs perfectly with a chilled glass of white Italian wine (although, doesn’t everything really?) or even some cold Pellegrino with fresh lime. I’m kind of obsessed with Pellegrino and lime…and pretty much all things Italy. I spent a few amazing weeks there with my Mom back in 2004. If you’ve never been, put it on your bucket list!

I have a black thumb when it comes to plant and gardening but thankfully, my basil has been doing well despite the ridiculous heat here in Southern Oklahoma. And we got some beautiful organic Roma tomatoes in our Bountiful Basket this week. Perfect for this recipe!

For the pizza, you’ll only need a few things to make it:
-Herbed Pizza Crust (recipe below)
-1 can Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce (the.BEST.sauce.ever)
-Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella (I like the Pearls shown above for this recipe)
-Roma Tomatoes (about 6), roasted (recipe below)
-Fresh Basil
-Balsamic Reduction (recipe below)

But there’s a lot more ingredients in the prep work which we’ll start with first…

For the herbed crust:

-4 cups organic all-purpose flour

-1 envelop yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

-1 tbsp sugar

-1 tsp each: garlic powder, ground oregano, marjoram

-1 tbsp each: thyme, rosemary

-2 tsp sea salt

-1 1/2 cups warm water

-2 tbsp olive oil

Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt and spice in a large bowl and stir to combine. Stir while adding warm water and olive oil. Stir until well combined and a ball of dough starts to form. I find it’s easiest just to use my hands. Knead dough for 5 minutes or until smooth and firm. Transfer your ball of dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place. Allow to rise at least one hour or until it has roughly doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, work on the roasted roma tomatoes…

Roasted Roma Tomatoes

-6 roma tomatoes

-minced garlic

-salt & pepper

-sugar

-olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise and use a spoon to remove the seeds. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (Make sure your parchment paper is oven safe to 450 degrees–the Wilton brand usually is). Drizzle with olive oil and add a dab of minced garlic in the center of each tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and, white sugar. Roast for about 35-40 minutes.

I got distracted by a 2 year old having a meltdown and cooked these about 5 minutes too long but they were still tasty, albeit a wee bit burnt on the edges…

Balsamic Reduction

-1 1/2 cups balsamic vinegar

-1 tbsp honey

Combine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer. Reduce until it is a syrupy consistency. Watch closely when it starts to thicken or it will go from a nice syrup to thick and burnt very quickly! Remove from heat and store in an airtight container until pizza is complete. (This will keep in the fridge if you have leftover sauce. It may get a bit thick but you can thin it out with a bit of really hot water).

Tip: Once cooled, I pour the balsamic reduction in a plastic baggie and use it like a pastry bag to drizzle it on the pizza.

Now that all our prep work it done, putting the pizza together and grilling it is the easy part!

Cut your dough into two pieces (I actually cut mine into three with the third being a much smaller piece to make my kids a little plain cheese pizza). You make two smaller pizzas because it’s really hard to make one large one on the grill. Trust me, we’ve tried! It isn’t pretty. Cover balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the grill to high to get it nice and hot and then turn down to medium.

Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and brush both sides with olive oil. Grill for 2-3 minutes per side, grilling the side that will go back on the grill more lightly than the side that will get the toppings.

Top with a light coat of pizza sauce, roasted tomatoes, and mozzarella.