Grilled Pizza, Take #1: Grilled Chicken Pesto

Nothing says "Happy Summer" more than pesto, in my mind.  Ironically, this pesto was leftover from one I made sometime in May.  I typically make a bunch, and store it in 1/2 C quantities in my freezer.  It's one of those deliciously fresh sauces or multi-purpose flavor bases that comes in handy.  This one was a spinach-fresh from the garden anise hyssop-walnut-parmesan pesto that I took out of the freezer last night along with three giant sized boneless chicken breasts.  I threw it all into a bowl with about 1/4 C white wine and snuggle overnight in the fridge.

Today, the process was super simple, and I'm certain there will be more grilled pizza to come.  This was inspired by last week's grilled wheat pizza - made with leftover impromptu ground turkey empanada stuffing (ground turkey, black olives, raisins, onion, corn, latin spices) topped with cheddar, fresh cilantro and a dolup of sour cream (fail on the photo front).

I definitely did not have time today to make my own crust; but most grocery stores sell bags of fresh pizza dough ... Trader Joe's even offers several flavor varieties.  I used a white flour dough and worked in some salt and parmesan, stretching it onto a non-stick pizza pan dotted with holes (I also coated it with some EVOO first).  

The grill was pre-heated, the chicken pulled out of the pesto-marinade being careful to scrape excess off of the chicken, grilled to perfection, and set aside to rest.  Once the chicken was done, the pizza crust went on until the bottom began to get golden brown.  Meanwhile, I quickly threw the the reserved pesto marinade into the microwave to cook off the fact that the raw chicken had been sitting in it.  The crust was then topped with a thin spread of the pesto and a handful of sliced grape tomatoes.  As the tomatoes began to soften, the pesto-coated crust was topped with a good handful (approx. 1 C) of shredded Italian blend cheese.  In the last five-six minutes of the crust grilling, three small heads of Romaine lettuce sliced in half length-wise and lightly drizzled with a bit of EVOO and balsamic of Modena, were grilled until lightly charred.

Once the crust was crispy brown on the bottom and top, and the cheese nice and golden...voila!  Perfectly grilled pizza--topped with sliced pesto-marinated grilled chicken, shredded grilled Romaine, and fresh micro-basil from the garden!