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After spotting a basil plant at Trader Joes – for the lovable price of $2.99 – homemade pizza was definitely in order. We already planted basil (from seed) in our container garden, but it has a few more months until it’s usable. My favorite recipe that uses a lot of basil is the classic Pizza Margherita. While you could just buy a pizza crust if you’re short on time, I love making pizza dough homemade. The smell of fresh baked dough is almost worth it alone.
Here’s a simple pizza crust recipe from Martha Stewart: Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough recipe (Note: It does require an hour to rise). After I make the dough, I freeze half of the recipe to use for pizza or stromboli (broccoli mozzarella is my current favorite) on another day. Then, roll out the other 1/2 into 2-4 mini pizzas.
Tomato Mozzarella Basil Pizza Recipe
Makes 4
Ingredients
Whole-wheat pizza dough (above)
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
8 oz mozzarella cheese
1 cup fresh basil
1 cup tomato sauce
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place pizza shells on baking sheet. Spread tomato sauce thinly over each shell; sprinkle with cheese, layer torn basil leaves over cheese, and then layer tomato slices over the basil.
- Bake until crusts are golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
What’s your favorite way to use fresh basil?
Susan
June 9, 2009 at 6:26 pmWe are growing basil too! We always make pizza but I have never made my own dough, I will have to try out that recipe.
My other favorite is making pesto, but it’s hard to grow enough basil when you live in a tiny apartment.