Pizza Margherita

It’s Friday and what better way to celebrate the end of the work week than to have pizza for dinner. I love to have pizza for Friday night dinners, but I’ll be honest, I rarely make pizza. I don’t know why. It’s not hard to make, but I always seem to order it in.

I have no more excuses not to make pizza at home. I have three great pizza recipes – Barbecue Chicken Pizza , Turkey Pepperoni Pizza and this one, Pizza Margherita.

I’ve been making this pizza since I was a newlywed the first time around. I had received a Williams-Sonoma Pizza Cookbook as a gift. Most of the recipes in the book were out of my skill level, but this one was perfect. I adapted it a bit and only use dried basil because that was what I could afford many years ago. I still make it that way. It would be a great flavor enhancement to use fresh basil. Give it a try and let me know how it is!

I love the combination of this Pizza Margherita, the gooey  mozzarella cheese, the juicy Roma tomatoes and the hint of basil. I promise this pizza will become a family favorite.

Enjoy!

~J

Pizza Margherita

 

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Author: Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients

• 1 pizza dough
• 8 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3 to 4 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 handful of fresh basil leaves or a couple of dashes of dried basil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, divided

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. On top of your prepared pizza dough spread the mozzarella cheese.
3. Next, scatter the tomatoes evenly over the cheese.
4. Sprinkle the basil, salt and pepper.
5. Drizzle 3 tbsp. olive oil over the entire pizza.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 400 degrees and cook for 10 minutes or until the dough is done and the cheese is melted.
8. Take out of the oven, drizzle with 1 tbsp. olive oil and then serve.

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