Tomato, Garlic and Herb Pizza

Update 4.21.2018.

It’s been a looooooong time since I’ve made pizza, and really, what I’ve been itching to make is Nacho Pizza (hopefully soon to come!). Instead of experimenting with Nacho ingredients to make a Nacho Pizza hybrid; I decided to stick with what I know for tonight’s pizza: tomato, garlic and fresh herbs with loads of cheese.

I purchased about 6 cups of heirloom tomatoes intending to make a Tomato Salad for my dad’s arrival in town. But he didn’t make it in this weekend and the idea of that many tomatoes taking up room in my fridge made me a little anxious. Hence the tomato pizza. To really add some flavor to a primarily tomato pizza I added the fresh herbs and almost an entire head of garlic.

ingredients.

• 16 oz pizza dough
• salt and pepper, to taste
• olive oil
• ½ to 1 c. fresh herbs (I used basil, thyme and oregano the first time I made it; basil, thyme and Italian parsley the second), finely chopped
• 8 oz heirloom tomatoes sliced in half
• 1 head of garlic, cloves chopped finely
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 6 oz fontina cheese, shredded

directions.

Option 1

1. Remove pizza dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees and spray a 16-inch round pizza pan with cooking spray.
3. Using flour (if necessary), begin to stretch the dough out into as large of a circle as possible. Place on the pizza sheet and work the dough at the edges using the heel of your hand to press and stretch toward the edge of the sheet. This will take a few minutes. Try to make the crust of the pizza as even as possible or you’ll have pockets of thicker chewy crust when the pizza is cooked.
4. Once the crust is stretched all the way to the edge of the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Pre-bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
6. Spread the olive oil evenly over the pizza crust and sprinkle with cheeses, tomato, herbs and garlic.
7. Place back in the oven and bake the pizza for 25 to 30 additional minutes or until edges of the pizza are beginning to brown and turn crisp. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before slicing.
8. Top with freshly shaved parmesan cheese, if you’d like.

Option 2

1. Remove pizza dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees and spray a 16-inch round pizza pan with cooking spray.
3. Using flour (if necessary), begin to stretch the dough out into as large of a circle as possible. Place on the pizza sheet and work the dough at the edges using the heel of your hand to press and stretch toward the edge of the sheet. This will take a few minutes. Try to make the crust of the pizza as even as possible or you’ll have pockets of thicker chewy crust when the pizza is cooked.
4. Once the crust is stretched all the way to the edge of the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread olive oil evenly over the pizza crust and sprinkle with cheeses, tomato, herbs and garlic.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until crust is starting to brown and cheese is bubbling.
6. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before slicing.
7. Top with freshly shaved parmesan cheese, if you’d like.

If you don’t have a great recipe for pizza dough, you should look through my blog. I have a handful that would work well. If you’d rather not go through the effort, Trader Joe’s has what I believe is an excellent pizza dough that’s relatively inexpensive to boot.

This pizza was so loaded down with cheese, it took almost 30 full minutes to cook the pie. If you’re not a huge fan of garlic (or don’t like it at all) you can reduce (or omit completely). Although I used an entire head of garlic, I didn’t think garlic overpowered the rest of the ingredients. To be fair, in my mind you can never have too much garlic.

Recipe rating: 