Homemade Pizza Margherita

Due partly to the fact that I am not a multi-millionaire and partly that I actually enjoy cooking, I more often than not do my best to make good home-cooked meals rather than going out.  Jessica and I each have our specialties (she is the baker plus makes great stuffed squash, quesadillas, and chicken pastry while I go more for Italian options as well as chicken dishes) but one thing we both love is pizza. 

Most all grocery stores (Food Lion near us, but also Lowe's, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's, etc.) sell frozen pre-made balls of pizza dough.  While using one skips the "dough-making" process, I still count it as a raw ingredient and feel I'm in control from the start!  It is simple as defrosting the dough the night before and I'm ready to go.

My typical pizza is a standard cheese with tomato sauce (either store-bought pasta sauce or, more often, my own sauce that I make using crushed tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, onion flakes, oregano, and basil). but I tried a Margherita style last night with great success.  I begin by forming the dough into a thin, roughly circular shape (each frozen ball actually makes two pizza crusts for me).  While I get the ingredients ready to top, I pre-heat my oven to 475 degrees with our pizza stone inside so that it is hot when I put the dough on.

With the stone ready, I place the dough atop and begin adding my flavors.  I start by brushing the whole pie with a thin layer of olive oil, followed by freshly microplaned garlic, salt, and pepper.  While I'd normally add the tomato sauce for my standard pizza, I instead threw on quartered cherry tomatoes (purchased on the vine and amazingly fresh) for the Margherita style.  Fresh mozzarella (key for this type of pie) was then sliced, broken into smaller pieces, and scattered across the top of the pizza.  While I normally would cover the entire pizza with cheese, I instead left some areas open and others with just the tomatoes, which worked quite well for the finished product.

The pizza was ready for the oven so I placed it in and got started with the final topping... fresh basil.  I sliced the basil into thin strips, and after ten or so minutes of cooking the pie, added the basil before putting the whole thing back in until the cheese and crust started browning. 

The end result was a delicious, fresh-tasting pizza!  The white, green, and red colors set the pizza off even before the first bite, but the flavor combinations of the basil, tomatoes, and cheese really paired perfectly.  While the standard pizzas I typically make are good, this pizza was definitely a step above (without really spending much more... the tomatoes weren't any more expensive (maybe $1-2) than crushed tomatoes in a can and the basil $3 at most).  I can't wait to experiment more with different quality meats and other toppings, but I think the Margherita may always be my favorite!