Margherita Pizza

Fact: The elapsed time between my making a recipe and my getting it posted is usually about a week. Generally I spend a day or so deciding if it's really worth posting, then it'll maybe take me a day or two to actually remember to get the pictures off my camera, and by that point (if I'm lucky) I won't be backlogged with other posts to catch up on.

Well, I introduce you to a (temporary) new era on this fine blog. I am sitting here, enjoying this tasty pizza as my dinner AND blogging it simultaneously. Amazing, right? A little bit of silver lining in the otherwise dreary cloud of being home alone for the night. And since I'm being so punctual about blogging this super easy and delicious recipe, let's get right to it, shall we?

Margherita Pizza


1 recipe Crusty Pizza Dough
2 medium to large tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 minced garlic clove (or if you forget this like I did, just sprinkle some garlic powder on top)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 to 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Prepare crust as directed. After spreading onto pizza pan, brush lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with dried basil, oregano, and garlic powder (if desired). Top with mozzarella cheese. In a separate bowl, toss tomato slices with basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. (Tip from a friend: if the tomatoes are super juicy, they might water down the pizza as it bakes. To remedy this, pat them mostly dry between a few layers of paper towels before tossing with the basil mixture.) Lay tomato slices on top of mozzarella. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese (and--if you love your cheese like I do--more mozzarella!). Bake for 12-15 minutes in a 450* preheated oven.

Now, just for fun, let's reflect back on my first pizza making experience.

How special is that? Ironically, that's actually the same topping recipe that I used tonight (but with chopped tomatoes instead of sliced--and I think the sliced ones look so much prettier!). Now, I haven't really gotten better by the whole "practice makes perfect" method; rather, after failing that first attempt so miserably, I've completely redone my pizza making process (at least I didn't give up, right?). I use an entirely different recipe, and I no longer mess with trying to coordinate baking on my pizza stone (the recipe we currently use bakes up quite well on a pizza pan). Maybe if we had one of those cool pizza peel things it'd be easier for me to transfer the pizza to the stone, but for now, I'm content with the method we use. And as long as my pizza keep tasting as good as the one tonight did, I don't see any reason to change!