Margherita Pizza

Confession:  I don't really like pizza (I know, I'm crazy) except I love this pizza. This is definitely a give or take a little recipe so go ahead and play with the amounts a bit to get it just the way you like it.

1/4 Olive Oil

1 Tbs Minced Garlic

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

Crust:

2 1/4 tsp Sugar

2 1/4 tsp Yeast

1/3 cup Water

1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Warm Milk

1 1/2 cups Flour

Topping:

2 cups mozzerella cheese

3-4 large roma tomatoes, sliced or chopped

3(ish) large fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Mix olive oil, garlic, and kosher salt. Set aside.

Mix sugar, yeast, and water in a small bowl and let soften. Meanwhile, mix remaining crust ingredients. Add yeast mixture and knead until smooth and stretchy. Spread onto a pizza pan/stone or just a baking sheet (if you're like me and don't have a pizza pan). Brush a light coat of oil and garlic mixture over the uncooked crust.  Bake the crust (yes just the crust) for about 15 minutes. The crust should be mostly cooked but still white.

Pour remaining oil and garlic mixture over tomatoes and let marinade for 15-20 minutes.

Place toppings on the partially baked crust in the following order: mozzerella, tomatoes, basil, parmesan. Bake 10-15 minutes until crust is golden brown, cheese is melted, and toppings are cooked to desired tenderness.

Here's another confession, I don't like raw tomatoes. If they are cooked I love them (yeah, I think I'm weird too). So I cook my pizza a little longer just to make sure those tomatoes ar nicely roasted.

** To make this recipe super easy just buy a pre-cooked pizza crust. I personally like homemade crust much more but sometimes convenience outweighs taste.