Pizza at Home - Gilroy Garlic and smoked Tri-tip Pizza - California

We're in California! California is such a big state I think we can make a bunch of different pizzas with a California theme, don't you think? 

Right now we're in Central California, near Gilroy. Gilroy is the Garlic Capital of the World, so we can definitely theme a pizza to that! 

There's so much garlic here, there's shops that are dedicated just to garlic! There's the Garlic Shoppe. 

Look at all that garlic!

And just down the street is Garlic World! We can definitely find garlic here. But we can't just have a garlic pizza. There has to be something to accompany it. I was thinking and thinking, but nothing was coming to mind. 

Well lucky for us, right beside Garlic World, Mike Smith's Backyard BBQ is smoking another Central California creation. In the 1950s, just south of here in Santa Maria, Bob Schutz introduced the tri-tip to his customers. 

Mike Smith came over with a sample and it was delicious! 

So good that Theresa got the idea that it should be the accompaniment to our Gilroy garlic pizza! Perfect! I bought a platter for $18 just to get the meat to put on my pizza. 

So how much garlic do I need for a garlic pizza? Let's go with this much. 

Roasted garlic has an amazing flavor. All of this is going in the toaster oven. 

I cut a few bulbs in half, and left a few more whole. I coated them with oil, salt and pepper. 

90 minutes at 350F in the oven and these are smelling fantastic. Hope you like garlic, because the whole RV is starting to take on the roasted garlic smell. 

I picked out the bulbs and then squeezed out the rest. 

That's a lot of work for not a whole lot of garlic. 

I mashed a bit of the garlic into a paste and spread it on top of my thin crust pizza dough. That got covered with a little mozzarella cheese. 

I topped it with my whole garlic cloves, plus a bit of red onion and spinach. 

The tri-tip is already cooked, so it didn't need to spend much time in the oven. I pre-cooked my pizza, then added my sliced tri-tip during the last few minutes, just to warm it up. 

Fantastic!

Look at that slice! Tri-tip with a fantastic pink smoke ring, whole roasted garlic cloves, plus the onion and spinach. 

Nice and crispy on the bottom. 

And not too many toppings that it can't hold up. 

And the taste? Oh boy! I hope you like garlic. This is garlicky and then some! The strong flavor might be too much for a normal pizza, but if it's intended to be a garlic pizza it's just about perfect. The smoky tri-tip flavor really comes through too and goes really well with the garlic. Theresa praised it as well as a successful garlic pizza. 

Can't forget about the kids. They love their thin crust pizza Sundays. 

Theresa went wild on her toppings. 

And I guess I did too. You can always make something delicious! 

So far I've made Palm Springs Date Pizza, California Avocado Pizza, Fresno Fruit Trail Pizza, and now Gilroy Garlic Pizza. California has so many different flavors we can use for inspiration!