Grilled Pizza with Asparagus and Caramelized Onion

Well, we've finally been back to cooking more meals this week. It's been nice to get back in the kitchen. I just need to get back on the computer too and get some of the recipes up here!

I'm not joking when I say that I probably have 20 cooking magazines decorating my office desk :-) Lately, I've been trying to go through them to find recipes that we want to keep and ran across this recipe in the May 2009 Cooking Light. It's originally intended to be an appetizer, but when you're only cooking for 2 people, you can make almost anything into a meal. My husband is fine with eating vegetarian meals a couple times a week, and I knew it wouldn't be that hard of a sell anyway. It's PIZZA!

We actually have a special little Weber pizza pan that goes with the grill, but this recipe called for the crust to cook directly on the grill grate. This was a little different, as we were not quite sure how we were going to flip the dough? Thankfully, the pizza pan turned out to be a great dough-flipper. Just like a giant pancake =-) The dough apparently cooks rather quick on the grill. It was on there for maybe 6 minute total.

The pizza itself was pretty good. There is no sauce, so the flavor comes from the veggies, cheese, and a basil-pepper mixture that is sprinkled on top as the pizza is in it's last few mintues of cooking. When we make it again, we will probably double the veggie mixture to make it a little more hearty (it was an appetizer recipe after all). Enjoy!

Grilled Pizza with Asparagus and Carmaelized Onion

(Adapted from Cooking Light, May 2009)

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 c. thinly vertically sliced red onion

2 c. (2-inch slices) asparagus (about 1/2 lbs)

1/4 c. sliced ready to use sun-dried tomatoes (ours were not in olive oil)

1/8 tsp. salt

1 portion fresh pizza dough (homemade in the bread machine from our standard recipe)

1-1/4 c. shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2-3/4 tsp. ground oregano

Prepare pizza crust in bread machine or use thawed store bought dough. Prepare grill to medium-high heat. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; saute 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 5 minutes longer or until browned. Add asparagus to pan; cook 5 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender. Stir in tomatoes and salt.

Roll dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Add flour as needed until dough is no longer sticky. Brush each side with 1/2 teaspoon of remaining olive oil.

Place dough on a grill rack; grill 1-1/2 minutes or until crust bubbles and is well marked. Reduce grill heat to low; turn dough over. Arrange onion mixture over crust; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and grill over low heat 3-1/2 minutes or until cheese melts; remove pizza from grill. Sprinkle with oregano and black pepper.