Tomato Basil Pizzas

Last night we made some homemade pizzas, I'm telling ya it's so much better than the frozen stuff and not that hard! Q is my dough guy - he tosses it up in the air and rolls it out and I handle the toppings... it makes for a fun night cooking together. You can cook the pizza all different ways but we just baked it on sheets in the oven. I had some frozen tomato sauce that I thawed out to use on this tasty version.

I made the cherry tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden, a combination of both yellow pear & red cherry tomatoes. Heat a non stick large skillet over medium heat and drizzle some olive oil. Then add the tomatoes, cover and cook over medium heat until the tomatoes start to burst. I usually just swirl the pan around but you can use a spatula and stir the tomatoes occasionally. If some of the tomatoes don't burst just use your spatula and gently press down. Once the tomatoes are broken down now start adding some ingredients. I add some chopped garlic, salt, crushed red pepper, torn basil leaves and minced onion. Cook until the flavors come together and let cool. A trick I've learned regarding basil in tomato sauce - don't add the leaves until the last 20 minutes or so of cooking time. Instead, add a few of the stems and remove them at the end of the cooking process so you have a delicious flavor added to the sauce.

Can't go wrong with homemade Pizza!

ingredients

• 1 lb pizza dough at room temperature

• handful cherry tomatoes, halved

• fresh basil leaves

• shredded mozzarella

• cherry tomato sauce

• olive oil

• flour and cornmeal

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450º. Lightly flour a clean surface. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into 8" oval shapes (they don't have to be perfect, actually the less perfect the better). Dust the baking sheets with some cornmeal and place the dough on the sheets.

3. Spoon some sauce, mozzarella cheese & cherry tomatoes onto the pizza. Season with some S&P. Place in the oven and bake for 7-8 minutes until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through.

4. Remove from oven and top with chopped basil leaves (stack the leaves on top of one another, roll tightly and slice from right to left). Let pizzas cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting.

These were so good - of course Q complained again that there was no meat but he thought they were just as delicious as I did. Even though he said he really enjoyed the pizza, he did say "you know babe, if it had bacon it would be even better next time". Gotta love him and his love for bacon.

Pizza with yellow pear tomato sauce, mozzarella,
fresh basil & cherry tomatoes

Enjoy!