Almost Classic.

   Pizza again! "Classic" - margherita, "almost" - fresh tomatoes rather than marinara sauce! This was a special request from my lovely husband, who had this pizza when we were vacationing this summer and he was so impressed by it that he talked about it for next two days. I do have to admit it was pretty amazing... fresh, light, flavorful, just a perfect simple margherita pizza. I still have tomatoes and basil in my garden, Justin spotted a great deal on a huge ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, so how could I not make it? It's one of those dishes that are supper simple, with only a few ingredients, but man do they taste good! Here is the recipe and few tricks on how to make this pizza perfect.

Ingredients:

*  Pillsbury Refrigerated Thin-style Pizza Crust
*  2 medium red tomatoes, sliced
*  1 cup yellow grape tomatoes, halved
*  1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
*  1 tbsp olive oil
*  10-15 fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1. Place the pizza dough on the baking sheet or a pizza stone. Drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil and using a pastry brush spread it on the entire dough.
2. Bake the crust at 400F for 6 minutes. It's important to pre-bake it, because you don't want to bake tomatoes for too long, not to make them mushy.
3. Remove pre-baked crust from the oven and cover with tomato slices and mozzarella cheese. Return into 400F oven and bake for 7-8 more minutes.
4. Sprinkle baked pizza with fresh basil and serve your dinner!

   Such a great pizza. The simplicity of the ingredients allows all of them to stand out and shine. Tomatoes are sweet and juicy, mozzarella super gooey, and the basil is fresh and fragrant. Brushing olive oil on pizza dough changed my life, it makes it so much better, you should definitely try this trick. No need for any sauce, it's just perfect the way it is.

Enjoy,
Magda.