Pizza, Peaches, Prosciutto, and Prosecco
- Danielle Tennessee
- Jun 12, 2018
- 2 min read
There's not much that's better on a warm, late-spring evening than pizza grilled poolside while drinking good Prosecco. So that is exactly what we did, after spending the afternoon getting tired and hungry and sun-soaked in the perfect East Tennessee weather. But we did find one way to improve upon the situation, and that was to add prosciutto and peaches to the mix (also the alliterative opportunities of the pairing did not escape me).
We started with the pizza dough, which required a bit of rising time, as well as a walk down the street for extra yeast from a neighbor. It's my best friend's dough recipe, which turns out delicious and perfect every time, and for which I don't have the exact recipe. But it was the most basic of flour, salt, yeast, hot water pizza dough recipes, and made enough for one large pizza and one small enough to feed two hungry little ones. After the dough had doubled in size (maybe half an hour? we were very impatient), it went on the grill to get a base bake, giving it beautiful grill marks and good texture.
When the dough was ready, we added our simple, springtime toppings: herbed goat cheese blended with lemon juice until smooth and creamy, thin-sliced zucchini and onion, plenty of black pepper, and strips of salty prosciutto. Nom nom nom. Then back onto the grill for however long Nick decided it needed. At this point, we were fully occupied with the Prosecco and peaches, so...
As the pizza grilled up, we sipped and started preparing what we thought would be dessert, although they turned out much too savory to be considered as such. We sliced Georgia peaches (which were a little on the firm side in hopes they might hold up on the grill), spread on more goat cheese, and wrapped them in a thin slip of prosciutto (are you sensing a theme???). These we set aside to go on the grill as our post-pizza treat. Hot off the grill, we drizzled the peaches with honey and sprinkled on fresh mint. They were exceptional, but not at all sweet in the way we had envisioned. For a more desserty version, I would go for riper peaches, honey goat cheese, and maybe a honey drizzle both before and after the grill? I'll definitely be giving that a try next time.
The final result of the pizza was everything we wanted and more. The "and more" was the eggs we cracked on our slices and let finish off in the oven indoors until just done, with runny yolks to ooze deliciously over the soft cheese and zucchini. Both peaches and pizza were incredibly flavorful and hinted at the tastes and smells of early summer-- juicy lemon and peach and sunshine, mixed with the smoke of the grill. Prosecco (ours was $9.99 at Aldi!) was a beautiful match, bubbly and crisp and bright. A perfect celebration of the season.
