Red Grape Pizza with Rosemary, Honey, and Pecorino

Conversation earlier this week:

David: You bought grapes!  [pause] Are they for eating?

Alli: Yes, they're for eating...though I need a few of the red grapes for a project.

David:  I don't eat cooked grapes.

Alli: Hmmm.

David: Alli!  I don't eat cooked grapes, okay?!

Okay, I know what you're thinking.  You don't eat cooked grapes, either.  But trust me, grapes on pizza?  It may seem weird, but it totally works, especially when the sweetness of the grapes is combined with the salty bite of Pecorino Romano and the woodsy flavor of rosemary.  Plus, the recipe came from Jamie Oliver, who has an amazing accent and is therefore worthy of my trust.

You may or may not notice that my grape pizza looks a little...rustic.  This is because I didn't flour my cutting board and rolling pin as well as I thought I had.  Also, I assembled the pizza on the cutting board and then tried to move it to the baking sheet, which was very difficult to do and somehow made it square.  These were mistakes that I usually don't make, but I had just spent an hour in traffic, so I think I should get a pass.  For proof that I'm not completely inept and that I do, in fact, learn from my mistakes, take a look at the thoroughly respectable (and round!) barbecue chicken pizza I made for David.  Yes, I made personal pizzas so that David would not be forced to eat cooked grapes...cooked, roasted, crackly, juicy, gorgeous grapes. 

So...the inevitable changes to the recipe: I confess to using pre-made, store-bought dough.  I know that making pizza dough is supposedly easy and what not, and I will eventually conquer my fear of yeast and make pizza dough from scratch, but not on a weeknight, you know?  Also, the recipe said to grind the rosemary and olive oil with a mortar and pestle, but really, who has a mortar and pestle?  Not me, that's for sure.  Instead, I finely chopped the rosemary, put it in a bowl, drizzled it with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and kind of mashed it together with the back of the tines of a fork...it worked just fine.

Red Grape Pizza with Rosemary, Honey, and Pecorino

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Makes two personal pizzas

1 pound pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)

A few sprigs of fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

A handful of red grapes 

1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese 

Optional: I also used a vegetable peeler to make the large shavings of cheese pictured above

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Remove the rosemary leaves from the sprigs and finely chop.  Place in a bowl, drizzle the olive oil over it, and mash with a fork.  Cut all the grapes in half and set aside.

Divide the pizza dough in half and, on a well-floured surface, roll each half into a circle.  Transfer the dough to the baking sheet.  Brush each pizza with the rosemary olive oil.  Scatter the grape halves on the pizzas, and drizzle each pizza with a teaspoon of honey.  Sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake the pizzas in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the dough is cooked through and the cheese has melted.