Rosemary, Grape, and Chevre Pizza

This pizza isn’t really a pizza. It’s more like an elegant, France-inspired summer appetizer that just happens to take the form and name of a pizza. The stars of this pizza are surprising – pungent rosemary is mixed with fresh, juicy grapes and baked onto a flatbread with creamy goat cheese. The result is top notch – warm, creamy, sweet, and earthy all at once.

When I decided to write about this pizza I was going to tell you a story about rosemary, a story about a dreamy day spent in Southern France climbing a hillside covered in wild rosemary to watch the sunset over the Mediterranean.  It’s a beautiful story, but I realized that it just doesn’t go with this pizza.  It’s a story for a different day.  So you’ll have to be content with the pizza for now and someday I’ll find the right words and the right flavors to convey that beautiful day in Cassis.

You fire up the grill, throw this pizza together on top of naan, and in 10 minutes you have a cheesy and sweet grilled pizza that finishes the day perfectly.  Suddenly you are very tired and you fall contently into bed with the warm night breeze coming through the window.

Rosemary, Grape, and Chevre Pizza

• 1 recipe of pizza dough, or 2 pre-made naans
• 2-3 cups of green grapes, washed and halved
• 5-6 oz goat cheese
• 2 TBS rosemary, chopped finely
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 450°F (if using dough).
2. Mix grapes, 1 TBS olive oil, and rosemary together in a medium bowl.
3. Roll out pizza dough.  Brush dough (or naans) with remaining tablespoon of oil.  Sprinkle kosher salt on top of oil.
4. Top dough/naans with grape mixture.  Crumble goat cheese over grapes.
5. If using dough, bake for 9-12 minutes, removing when edges of crust and goat cheese begin to brown.  If using naan, simply broil for 5 minutes.

(I make this pizza in the oven, but if you wish you can use naan or pre-baked your crusts, then top with grapes and cheese and place on grill for 5 minutes)