White Pizza with Arugula

One of my favorite 'farm dinners' is white pizza with arugula! I will take any cheese we have around the house,dough,  herbed olive oil, make a pizza and top it with arugula! To add even more flavor this year, we got the BBQ Pizza Pan from Pampered Chef to cook it on the grill.

How to make this delicious pizza:

- If making pizza in the oven, place your pizza stone in 500 degree oven while dough is rising.
- I typically use store bought pizza dough from the refrigerator section. If I'm feeling inspired, which is more often in the winter, I will make my own. I let the dough rise for about an hour in a bowl greased with olive oil.
- While dough and pizza stone are prepping, make a quick flavored olive oil. Heat a half a cup of oil in a small sauce pan and add some garlic and whatever herbs you want. Hot pepper flakes are also a great addition. 
- To roll it out: spread your work area with cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking. Stretch it out in your hands first, then put on work space and roll out to desire size. P.S. there are no rules as far as the shape!
- The best way to assemble the pizza is to cook the dough for a min or two before putting ingredients on. If  I'm using the oven, I slide it on the pizza stone to get it slightly cooked.
- For the grill: Place the dough on the pizza pan, place on prepared grill for about 2 mins until you see slight char marks. Flip the dough over and repeat on other side.
- Either remove dough from oven or grill. Generously spread olive oil mixture over the dough and edges.
- Top with about 2 cups of grated cheese. This particular pizza I used Fontina, Cheddar and mozzarella. Parmesan is great too. This is definitely a personal preference!
- Spoon 4-5 dollops of fresh ricotta on top. Again, a personal preference but it's so good when you get fresh ricotta! If you are in RI or even the NE, you can get Narragansett Creamery Ricotta, which is to die for.
- Cook pizza for about 7 mins or until cheese is bubbly and melted.
- While pizza is cooking toss fresh arugula with olive oil and freshly ground salt & pepper.
- When pizza is done cooking place arugula right on top, slice & eat! YUM.

Pizza dough stretched and rolled out with cornmeal.

Toppings all set.

Cooking on charcoal grill.

Fresh arugula waiting to go on pizza.

Ready to eat!

Turtle Knoll Farm Dinners begin...

One of my absolute favorite things about having the vegetable garden is creating fun 'farm dinners' based on what is out there to be harvested. Saturday night, July 14,  was our first of the summer in honor of the first zucchini. I'm trying a new variety this year called Green Tiger Striped Zucchini from Kitchen Garden Seeds, where I ordered a lot of seeds from this year for the first time. So far I've been very happy with most of what I started from them. I also grabbed a great bunch of beets from Brent at One Love Farm , who runs our local Richmond Farmers Market. My beets are coming in for the first time this year, but they were not quite ready for that night.

The menu that night was written out on the blackboard in our kitchen:

Appetizers:

• Microwave Chips using the Pampered Chef Microwave Chip Maker and freshly dug potatoes
• Oysters and little necks on the grill 

Dinner Served:

• Stuffed Zucchini on the grill
• Grilled Bread with herbed ricotta and beets
• Karl's Kitchen fresh kielbasa 

Stuffed Zucchini

ingredients:

•   sm - med zucchini's {1/2 serves 1 person}
• 1 sm onion, chopped
• 1 lb sausage {or whatever meat you like - we used the kielbasa in this one}
• 2 tbspns each of fresh parsley and basil
• 1/4 c bread crumbs
• 1/2 c Parmesan, some reserved
• 1 egg, beaten
• s&p

how to cook:
*We cooked the above in that baking pan on the grill for a half hour. We did cover it with tinfoil for 15 mins to make sure it was cooked through. 
**I do not pre-cook the zucchini because I feel that the half hour or so that it spends cooking is enough and leaves some of the crunch.  
 

• Crumble sausage and heat over medium heat. When it's about 2/3 done, add the onion. Cook until soft and starting to brown. As removing from heat add the basil and parsley. Let mixture cool slightly. 
• Cut off each end of the zucchini to the size that fits into the dish you are using to cook them. Scoop out middle so they look like boats.
• In medium bowl toss together sausage & onion mixture, bread crumbs, parm, s&p. Blend together with egg. 
• Fill each 'boat' with mixture and top with remaining cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for a half hour. 

Optional: a)You can use yellow summer squash or other summer squashes like pattypan instead. b)This can be made vegetarian by making the filling with entirely veggies - corn is a good filler. c)Cheddar cheese tastes great on top!

Grilled Bread with Herbed Ricotta and Beets:

ingredients:

• good bread, sliced about a half inch think on an angle
• olive oil
• garlic
• Ricotta, fresh if available
• Herbs: dill, chives & scallions
• baby beets
• s&p

how to cook:

• To make herbed ricotta: mix 1 cup of ricotta with about 2 tbspns each of dill, chives & scallions (or whatever you would like.) Taste to get desired flavor. 
• Beets: cut tops and bottoms off. Toss with olive oil, s&p and wrap in tinfoil. Either roast in oven at 400 degrees for an hour or place on grill for an hour. Let cool completely, peel and slice. 
• Grill bread for 1-2 mins on each side until desired doneness.   Remove from heat, brush with olive oil and rub with garlic. Sprinkle with a little s&p.
• Spread bread with ricotta and layer with beets.