Recipe: Grilled Sundried Tomato Pizza

Pizza on Friday was a regular occurrence during my youth. Sometimes we would buy it from a local pizza place, but most of the time my mom would make homemade pizza.  We loved it, especially in the summer because she hated to turn on the oven, so she would use the grill. Grilled Pizza, has been a family tradition for 20+ years and is probably one of my most favorite meals.

There is just something about the crust with a grilled pizza... it's crisp on the outside and the inside is nice and soft.  I also love the fact that you can make them personal sized, so everyone can pick their own toppings.

This type of pizza is perfect for a party. My favorite house party I gave was a grilled pizza party. I set the table with all different sauces, cheese and toppings.  My guests picked what they wanted and when the dough was ready on the grill they added it to the pizza.  It was interactive and fun!

Friday is coming… Get ready and grill!

Grilled Pizza

• 14 oz favorite pre-made dough (room temperature)
• Olive Oil
• Mozzarella (I used Smoked Mozzarella)
• Favorite toppings (I used La Medina Pomodoraccio Semi-Sun-Dried Tomatoes from our shelves at The Savory Pantry) 

1. Preheat your grill on high (make sure the grates are clean)
2. Take half the dough and stretch it to the thickness you like your pizza, if you like really thin pizza I recommend using a rolling pin.  
3. Add pizza directly onto the grates of the grill and shut lid, at this time turn down the temperature to medium.  The bottom of the pizza will start getting brown and releasing from the grates (about 5 minutes), once the bottom half is light brown(or a bit on the dark side if you like a nice crunch), flip the pizza dough.  
4. Brush with olive oil then add sauce, toppings, and cheese. Shut the lid and turn your grill to low. (For the pizza in the pictures, I made an impromptu sauce with a few semi-sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic in a food processor and topped with whole sun dried tomatoes, smoked mozzarella and basil.)
5. Check it after 5 minutes.  If the bottom is brown and the top is not melted yet, shut off the grill and close the lid for an additional 3 minutes. 
6. Slide your pizza from the grill to your plate and enjoy!

From The Maker's Mouth: Elki Gourmet

A longtime staple of The Savory Pantry, Elki Gourmet occupies alot of real estate on our store shelves!  We caught up with Giovanna Norde to get a peek behind the scenes of one of our favorite brands.

Elki is a family owned business, and that familial culture seems to reverberate throughout the company!  Your customer service and support is extraordinary.  How do you manage to maintain that personal touch in the very competitive world of specialty foods? Thank you so much, customer service is very important to all of us at Elki.  We are known industry wide for our hands on customer service, something that is a continual priority for us.  We know that we are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year because of our wonderful customers!  We are honored that they continually look to ELKI for their specialty food needs, we never take that lightly.

What has been your biggest challenge in bringing your products to market? Our biggest challenge is fine tuning our new products so that they have the perfect balance of texture, color and layering of flavors.  It always takes a little longer to get new products to market, we won’t introduce anything until it is absolutely perfect! 

What is it about what you do that you love the most? I love the specialty food industry, I get to work with the most wonderful customers, yourself at the top of that list!  No two days are the same and the excitement when introducing new products to the market is the best!!

What is your favorite Elki product and your most creative way of using it? Oh boy, that’s a tough one, I have several “favorites”.  Our new Caramelized Sweet Onion & Balsamic Crostini Spread is wonderful.  We sourced the onions from Belgium for that perfect taste and consistency, it made all the difference in the world.  I use it as a base on a flatbread and then top it with thinly sliced fresh pears and goat cheese.  I pop it in the oven and baked it until the cheese is softened.  It is amazing!  I’ve made some fantastic pasta dishes by using a combination of ELKI products.  I’ve used the bruschetta’s with the tapenades mixed with hot pasta and topped with fresh herbs and cheeses, thinned our whipped mustards with olive oil to make salad dressings.  The combinations are truly endless, I have so much fun experimenting!

What is your mostmemorable meal? Being in the specialty food industry we get to travel to some of the best cities and dine at the greatest restaurants, as a result I have been fortunate to have several memorable meals.  I love getting fresh sushi as that is something I don’t make at home.

What is your favorite food or food trend? I personally love the shelf stable “open and eat” trend that we are seeing more and more of.   I love that I can get high quality products in a jar ready to use for a quick meal or an appetizer with absolutely no prep work involved.  By the time I  go to the store and buy all the products to make one of our bruschetta’s or pesto I would spend a lot of money and then have to go home and spend more time making it.

What is your biggest (food) guilty pleasure? Being a total “foodie” I have several!  I love the savory flavor profiles, flatbread pizzas are one of my favorites.  I’ve been using our new Crostini Spreads and adding different artisan cheese’s and our grilled vegetables as toppings, delish!  Any of our pestos, bruschettas, tapenades, grilled vegetables and crostini spreads can be used with flatbreads and pasta, experimenting is half the fun!

What's next for Elki? We have several exciting things “in the hopper” so to speak!!!  We will continue on our path of creating the finest products with high quality ingredients for our loyal customers!

Recipe: Easy Bruschetta Mini Pizzas

Homemade pizza doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious.  With a pre-made crust and a jar of Elki bruschetta, you're just a few steps away from enjoying a fresh baked pizza, made to order.  We used pepperidge farm puff pastry dough to create these 2 mini pizzas.  Sure, it comes in a rectangular sheet, but after it thaws you can reshape it on a floured surface however you like. 

For a twist on the classic margherita pizza, we used the Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta.  The bruschetta spread functions as both a sauce and topping, making your pizza building even easier.  Next, we threw on some fresh water mozzarella before baking and finally topped the cooked pizza with sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.

For our second pizza, we used the Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto.  You could really just use this spread and keep it simple, but we went ahead and added feta cheese, and chopped chicken breast pieces.  (This is a great opportunity to "clean out the fridge" and get creative with toppings!)  A great pizza for someone who isn't fond of red sauce.

We hope you'll take inspirations from our mini pizzas, and create your own with a variety of topping and bruschetta spread combinations!  One mini pizza is perfect for a single entree or slice them for a shared appetizer.

Easy Bruschetta Mini Pizzas

• 1 Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough thawed as per package instructions
• Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta & Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto
• 1 small chicken breast, cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• Fresh water mozzarella
• Feta cheese
• Fresh Basil
• Fresh roma tomatoes, sliced

1. Preheat your oven to 400.  Once the dough has thawed (on the counter 45 minutes), prepare your work surface with a dusting of flour.  Divide the dough in half to form 2 balls. Roll out with a rolling pin.  Turn up edges around each pizza to forma small crust.
2. Place the 2 pizzas on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick all over with a fork.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove the pre-baked crusts from the oven and spread each with the Elki Artichoke Tomato Bruschetta & Elki Artichoke Lemon Pesto. 
4. Top the Artichoke Tomato pizza with fresh mozzarella.  Top the Artichoke Lemon Pesto pizza with feta and chicken.  Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven.  Top the Artichoke Tomato pizza with fresh tomato slices and basil leaves.