Pizza with fresh tomatoes

We love pizza at Casa Bouquet, and we have found homemade pizza to be a quick and tasty option. Pizza with fresh tomatoes can be made lots of ways. Fresh tomato recipes in the summer are hard to beat!

You will need measuring spoons, tomato knife or chef’s knife, and a half-sheet or cookie pan.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Prepare a half sheet pan with a silicone baking mat or foil dull side up. I use Boboli whole-wheat thin pizza crust for the crust. You don’t have to cook it before preparing the pizza.

Tip: This recipe works really well with a cauliflower crust. Cook two cups of riced cauliflower. Mix with 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan, 1 egg, and seasonings. Make a ball on silicone baking mat or parchment paper on baking sheet. Press until you have a circle 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Place the crust on the pan. Decide if you are going to add kalamata olives or not. If not, mix 4 tbsp. marinara sauce and 2 tbsp of olive oil. [Note: the olive oil or olives add mono-unsaturated fatty acids to this meal.] Spread the sauce thinly on the crust, up close to the edges. Sprinkle with oregano.

Thinly slice 2 large tomatoes or 4 romas. Arrange evenly on the crust. Sprinkle with sea salt. Cut the ends off two sweet banana peppers. Remove the seeds and cut into small strips. Arrange on the pizza.

If you did not use olive oil in the sauce, now add 20 pitted kalamata olives to the pizza. If desired, add 26 slices of turkey pepperoni. Cover with 4 tbsp. of shredded part skim mozzarella. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper to taste.

Cook for 10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Chiffonade 8 basil leaves and arrange on pizza. Add freshly grated Parmesan if desired.

You can also use pita bread for individual pizzas, homemade crust, or gluten-free cauliflower crust (see Resource links below.) If you’ve got the fixings on hand, this yummy pizza takes 15 minutes! We sure like it better than takeout pizza these days, and we think it’s fun to use summer’s bounty!

I’ll be looking for comments below, or contact me at lisa [at] thecasabouquet[dot]com.

Resource links

• http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpies.html#pizza
  • History of pizza from Food Timeline
• http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/2013/04/homemade-pizza-how-to-make-perfect-crust/
  • Perfect homemade pizza crust from Life in Grace
• http://www.foodfaithfitness.com/cauliflower-pizza-with-greek-yogurt-pesto/
  • Cauliflower crust and pizza recipe from Food Faith Fitness
• http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Gluten-Free-Pizza-Margherita?RAQW4BjktZm4OsLl.32
  • Gluten free pizza Margherita from Saveur
• http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Low-Carb-Cauliflower-Crust-Pizza-Recipe-30739512
  • Cauliflower crust pizza from Paula Deen via PopSugar
• http://greatist.com/health/make-healthier-pizza
  • 74 ways to healthier pizza from Greatist

Let’s talk story

Roma tomatoes are traditional for pizza. Have you tried heirloom tomatoes? Our favorites are German Johnson and Cherokee Purple. I hope you’ll try them!

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