Artichoke Carmelized Onion and Roasted Red Pepper Flatbread... don't forget the capers.

When you're oven is dead and you have a group of women coming over for a book club, having no food is not an option.  Well it's not an option for me, especially since I cannot partake of the wine and other alcoholic goodies.  Lucky for me I still have a grill and a husband that has a couple of recipes up his sleeve.  One of my favorites is his grilled flatbread.  I should probably call it our flatbread as I am the creative force behind the toppings.  I wanted to do vegetarian toppings and this is the first time I have thrown this combination together and it was sooooooooooo delicious, it may be my new favorite.  I adore artichokes especially on pizza, but I hadn't really planned ahead past picking up the artichokes at the store... brilliant I know.  I blame pregnancy brain.  Anyway... looking in the refrigerator I thought... hmmmmmm how about carmelized onions, aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddd.... hmmmm there's a red pepper in the crisper, maybe roasted red peppers, another of my favorite.  Now I would normally add goat cheese to this but since it is going to be grilled the topping don't get super hot so I couldn't have goat cheese so regular mozzarella would have to do, but I still wanted something a little salty so I used capers.  Then I put them all out on the counter and thought... is that going to work together.  Imagine this is where the little light bulb appears over my head.  A quick check into The Flavor Bible gave me a confirmation that all of these flavors do go together, very well.  YES!

The next step was to decide the sauce.  I'm a big fan of olive oil and fresh herbs instead of red sauce, especially thanks to the joys of heartburn during pregnancy, but while looking at the toppings I thought that a white sauce might be great, and I personally think it was... hence the new move to favorite flatbread status.

Now we're ready..... when my husband makes the flatbread, I first decide what goes on each one then I prep the toppings and sauce and put them all together so he can just throw them together out on the grill.

First the boys prepped the dough, the recipe link to an earlier post is below... it makes 6 flatbreads, and they freeze beautifully pre-cooking so make the whole batch you won't be sorry.

 I drained the artichokes (I don't do fresh artichokes they are not worth it if you're going to add them to other things), cut them in half and have them a quick sear on the grill pan.

Carmelized a little onion

Roast the pepper

 I like to set it over the gas burner (don't judge my ancient stained burner... it will be replaced asap now that we've got the oven ordered), until charred.  For those stubborn spots that don't like to char I have a crème brulee torch, that thing comes in handy often.

Once it's all burnt and smelling delicious, throw it in a paper bag and close the top.  You want the whole thing burnt, the red parts in this photo are actually where the skin has blistered and peeled back.  Leave it in the bag for about 10 minutes, open the bag stem and seed the pepper and you can either wash or scrap the skin off at this point, it should come right off.

 Rinse and dry some capers and add everything to a convenient carrying case for your  husband. 

I won't add the photo of the sauce because it smells and tastes better than it looked under poor lighting but I'll make sure to give you the recipe.

Grill it up and serve.... don't expect a whole lot of leftover... I remembered this photo a few minutes after the flatbread hit the table.

Artichoke, Carmalized Onion, Roasted Red Pepper and Caper Flatbread... whew that's a long one
adapted from Eileen's little pea brain

Ingredients

Toppings
2 serving dough (makes 2 flatbreads, split the toppings below between the two)
olive oil
fresh oregano (to taste)
1 red bell pepper, roasted an sliced thin
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, dried, cut in half and seared if so desired
handful of grated mozarella or cheese of choice (there is parmesan in the sauce so nothing overwhelming)
2 teaspoons of capers, rinsed and dried
white sauce (recipe below)
1/2 large white onion, carmelized

White Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, shredded

Heat butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and stir until thoroughly mixed.

Slowly whisk in milk, adding gradually. Stir in remaining ingredients. Will thicken upon standing.

Method

Prepare toppings as stated above.  Prepare white sauce, keep warm if possible or give a good stir right before adding. Prepare dough from HERE, and that link will also tell you how to grill it up.  Sorry I'm totally lazy and don't want to rewrite it.  Have a good week.