Basil Pizzas

If you do any cooking at home, you should take advantage of the warm weather and keep a couple of basil plants on hand. You can get them at Home Depot for about $2 a piece and they will keep you supplied with fresh basil throughout the spring and summer. They don't require alot of space so you can grow them in the back yard or out on the fire escape. It really doesn't matter. However, they grow pretty fast so you will need to harvest the leaves regularly. These three pizza recipes should help you thin out the crop.

For all three of these pizzas, I used the Neapolitan Pizza Dough recipe and the tomato sauce recipe listed below:

Ingredients:
1 15oz. can of tomato sauce (I use Red Gold brand)
1 tspn dry oregano
1 tspn dry basil
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Sauce

1. Add all of the ingredients to a small sauce pan.
2. Cook over medium heat.
3. Spread a thin coat of sauce over pizza dough using the back of a spoon.
4. Add toppings listed below.

Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Form dough into a thin oval.
3. Add the toppings below.
   

basil and pine nuts

Toppings:
tomato sauce
minced garlic
extra virgin olive oil (on crust and drizzled across pizza)
Parmesan cheese
chopped pine nuts
chopped fresh basil (1/2 on pizza before baking and 1/2 as garnish after pizza comes out of the oven)


basil and zucchini

Toppings:
tomato sauce
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil (on crust and drizzled across pizza)
thinly sliced zucchini
chopped fresh basil (1/2 on pizza before baking and 1/2 as garnish after pizza comes out of the oven)


basil and red peppers

Toppings:
tomato sauce
minced garlic
chopped red bell pepper (cooked in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat until soft)
Parmesan cheese
chopped fresh basil (1/2 on pizza before baking and 1/2 as garnish after pizza comes out of the oven)

Related Recipes:
Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Italy