Margherita Pizza

This could possibly be all that I need in life. Mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. The end.

Remember how I told you that Steve's mom gave me a bunch of fresh basil out of her garden?

I couldn't resist.

The above three ingredients were made to be either:

1. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar

or

2. Put on a pizza

Either way, they needed to get in my belly. On this particular day, I decided that a pizza was the way to go.

*Insert evil cackle here*

I had leftover tomato basil sauce from when I made The World's Most Difficult Spaghetti and Meatballs (kidding), but you could make this easier by using a store bought crust (or pita bread, french bread, english muffins) and a jar of pizza sauce or just some tomato paste.

Either way, when the cheese gets all melty and gooey, and the cherry tomatoes burst forth in your mouth...you'll....you will...um...well, you'll be really, really happy.

Margherita Pizza

• Your favorite pizza dough (or whatever vehicle you want to use as the base of the pizza),
• 1/2 to 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1 tablespoon or less olive oil
• 1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into thin rounds (buffalo mozzarella, if you have it available)
• Handful of fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 - 4 tablespoons fresh basil, julienned

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Roll dough out until it is very thin. Place on a pizza stone and brush with a small amount of olive oil. Pre-bake crust* for 5 min or until the edges start to get golden (keep a close eye on the crust in the oven - you don't want to over cook). Remove from oven and add sauce, basil, cheese and cherry tomatoes. Use the sauce sparingly...fresh mozzarella cheese has a lot of moisture in it, and you don't want it to get soggy. It also helps to use thicker sauce (closer to the consistency of tomato paste if you can). Return to oven and cook until mozzarella is melted and tomatoes are getting wrinkled. Delizioso!
* If you are using pita bread or something already cooked, you can omit this step.

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