Now that summer is winding down and fall is just around the corner (yay!) our garden harvest is in full swing. While some items didn't have as high of a yield as I would have liked, like our zucchini and corn, others, including our tomatoes and green beans have given us quite a bounty. I've tried my best to keep up with picking, cooking or freezing all of our garden goodies and in some cases it has really forced me to flex my creative cooking muscles to come up with recipes for everything. This past week we've been enjoying fresh tomatoes on our salads and I plan on using some to make pizza sauce and tomato sauce to freeze for the coming months. Sometimes, however, I think simple recipes can be some of the best ones. Going with this theme of simple and easy, tonight we made a delicious and light summer pizza with our fresh tomatoes, fresh basil from the garden, garlic and fresh mozzarella. I was so amazed with how much flavor all of the fresh, garden-grown items packed and my husband even proclaimed that his only complaint about it was that I didn't make a larger pizza. I'll check this one off as a success. Here's what I did:
Fresh Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Pizza
Use your favorite 12" whole wheat pizza crust (I used Wegman's Whole Wheat Flat Bread Pizza Crust) or even better, try your hand and making your own
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small or 1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced
1 large tomato (I used Pilgrim tomatoes, but beefsteak or any other large type would work)
4 oz. of fresh mozzarella, halved and thinly sliced in triangles
A pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Drizzle crust with olive oil and simply spread sliced toppings over pizza crust evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for 12-15 minutes.
