Grilled Summer Squash Pizza
The summer really feels like it begins for me when I'm grilling summer squash. This is usually one of the early vegetables in abundance at markets at the start of the season, so it's an early dietary indicator of a change to lighter and fresher foods. Grilling is also my absolute favorite preparation of these green and yellow veggies, rendering them well caramelized with a light sweetness and incredible charred flavor that just screams that it's time to be outdoors. So it should come as no surprise that zucchini and yellow squash feature heavily this time of year on my blog over and over again, always in a new variations like salads, skewers, or boats, and this time around they served as the central focus of this grilled summer squash pizza.
Planning on making this a white pie, I knew the flavor of it would be pretty light, so wanted to finish it a chili oil to give it a little boost and touch of heat that I thought would taste great with the sweet squash. Calabrian chili oil is pretty much a must for the wife and I anytime a pizza joint has it, so that's exactly what I made. Calabrian chiles have a mild fruity flavor and great kick of heat that tastes like it's built for pizza, but they're not the easiest to find. I got mine in jar, packed in oil, from a local Italian market, but if you're having troubles finding these guys, you can sub them out for Fresnos for their fruitiness plus a lesser amount of bird's eyes or habaneros to get something close utilizing easier to find specimens.
Finding the peppers are the hard part, making the chili oil itself is a snap—you just chop up some peppers and combine them with oil, then gradually heat until they start to bubble, then remove from the heat and let steep until cooled. At this point you need to transfer the chili oil a container for storage, and whether you want to strain the peppers away or keep them in is a matter of personal preference.
Since it's the char and sweetness of grilled squash that attracts me to them, my goal in preparation is usually trying to maximize surface area to boost those two traits as much as possible. Cutting the squash into thin slices is an excellent way to do this, and sometimes I do that in long strips, other times in smaller ovals, like I did here since that shape felt more appropriate for a pizza topper.
Thin slices of squash do grill up incredibly quickly over a hot fire though, so a watchful eye is needed to prevent them from burning or designating completely—both things that can happen sooner than you may expect. So I was kept busy grill-side, attentively flipping the squash a pulling them off the grill as they turned well browned, but not blackened.
Once they were all done, I was able to assemble my pies which consisted of Kenji's trusty Neapolitan pizza dough recipe, a brush of extra-virgin olive oil, a layer of fresh mozzarella, the squash slices, and then dollops of fresh ricotta. I failed to take a pizza-baking action shot, but this pie cooked in just a couple minutes time in my blazing hot KettlePizza. I can't endorse this accessory enough for making the best quality pizzas at home—you get the heat and wood flavor to output results as good, if not better, than some top quality pizza joints.
Once the pizza was done cooking, I grated on some fresh parmesan and drizzled on the chili oil. If grilled summer squash is my gateway to summer cooking, this pizza embodied that with many added bonuses. The zucchini and yellow squash delivered that grilled flavor synonymous with the season, and the light pairing of mozzarella and ricotta let the veggies really shine while adding a substantialness to make this a filling meal. These mellow flavors really let the tangy and crispy crust have more prominence than usual, while the chili oil added a fruity and spicy flavor I personally find necessary and addictive. What's more exciting than this pizza though is what it represents—summer is here and the days of more grilling have begun!
