Margarita Pizza

I an constantly experimenting, trying to perfect my margarita pizza.  My new pizza stone helps my quest greatly!  And my husband doesn’t complain about these experiments.  In fact, I’m pretty sure this is one of his favorite things that I make.

I love the bright, colorful, simple, fresh ingredients …

And the yummy combination of the crunchy crust and melty cheese …

 

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix together sugar, yeast and warm water, and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes (allowing yeast to proof.)  Add flour, salt, and vegetable oil and mix to form shaggy dough.  Knead on well-floured surface for 5 minutes.  Place doug in oiled bowl, cover with warm wet cloth, let rise until doubled (about 1 hour.)  Punch down.  Let rise for another 30 minutes.

Sauce ingredients:

• 3/4 cups tomato sauce
• 1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Mix all ingredients together.

Pizza topping ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh mozzarella
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (chopped)
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 – 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (preferably with a pizza stone in the oven, if you have one.  Let the pizza stone heat in the oven for an additional 20 – 30 minutes after the oven is fully pre-heated, before putting the pizza in, if you have time.)  Roll out the dough, top with the sauce.  Slice the mozzarella and place slices evenly around the pizza.  Slice the roma tomatoes and place the slices evenly around the pizza.  Top with about 1/2 of the fresh basil.  Place pizza on pizza stone in the oven, bake for 15 – 20 minutes (until crust is at the desired crispiness.)  Remove from oven, drizzle with olive oil and top with the remaining fresh basil.

Try not to eat the whole thing all in one sitting!



One Response to “Margarita Pizza”

1. Cole says:

   January 31, 2011 at 5:45 pm

   There are so many variations to margarita pizza. I think I prefer an olive oil base instead of a red base. In Ethiopia it is ALWAYS a red base. Let’s go to Italy some time so we can discover what they do most often :-).

   Interesting about the olive oil as a topping though. I will have to try that. Maybe I’d like it with the red sauce AND Olive Oil!