Margherita Pizza

Tomorrow is opening day for the Twins. Tradition in our house dictates we have a floor picnic tomorrow during the game. Unfortunately, it's also on a Friday during Lent. No meat. *sigh*

So, despite it being out of season, we're going to do Margarita Pizza tomorrow.

Margarita is a not a traditional tomato-based American pizza, but instead a very sophisticated pizza with the  clean flavors of olive oil and mozzarella cheese (use the good stuff...) and amazing bursts of basil throughout.

You either start with the World's Best Pizza Dough. (No really, it's the BEST) or One Hour Pizza Dough.

Then you'll need:

Olive Oil (a glug or two)
A pastry brush, grilling brush or, in a pinch, clean hands
Mozzarella cheese
A tomato or two roma tomatoes, seeded and thinly sliced
Several fresh basil leaves (yes, fresh. Ok, you can't substitute, but I don't recommend it.)

Preheat your oven appropriately for your dough.
Roll the dough out into whatever thickness you enjoy.
Brush the dough with the olive oil. How much? Just enough so that your finger can slide. Not so much that you have an oil slick.
Top with mozzarella. As much or little as you like on your pizza.
Top with thin slices of tomato and sprinkle with a chiffonade of basil.
Bake as your dough recipe suggests.

How to "chiffonade" basil:

The idea of a chiffonade is to cut really thin strips. If you've tried, cutting a leaf into thin strips is hard. So, take the basil leaves and roll one around the other (envision rolling tobacco.) Once you have a rolled group of leaves, take a small knife and slice off a little of the leaves at a time. In the end, you'll end up with really tiny strips that you can sprinkle over your pizza. YUM!