Making Pizza Margherita

Today I thought I would share one of my family’s favorite pizza recipes and that is pizza margherita.

I was introduced to this pizza years ago by my brother in law.

This is my version as he uses his own favorite flour.

And I might add that this is one of my daughters favorite meals to make.

This is the first time though that I am letting her cut all the ingredients herself!

For my version of pizza margherita you will need to following ingredients.

I box of Pillsbury hot roll mix

4-large Fresh mozzarella cheese balls

4- fresh garlic cloves

A handful of fresh basil leaves

Cherry tomatoes as many as you want.We used 6 per pizza.Sliced and de-juiced

A sprinkle of seasalt

A drizzle of olive oil

Mix the pizza dough per recipe on the box.

Mix it well using your hands.This is the fun part for kids.

After you mix well and shape into a ball set aside with a towel over a bowl.Place in a dark place.I usually place it in the microwave.Let it sit for an hour.

While the dough is rising you can start getting your ingredients ready.

We started with the cherry tomatoes.You will want to slice these and then squirt the juice from them.If you don’t the dough will be soggy.

Next dice the garlic.We have a garlic chopper I had my daughter use.We use 2 cloves per pizza.You can use less if you want.

I will share a little tip with you.To get the peel off of a clove of garlic simply lay the garlic down on a cutting board.Lay the knife flat like this.

With the palm of your hand tap the knife pressing down hard and it will remove the peel .

The mozzarella is next just slice it into pieces.

After an hour the dough should have risen.Now it is ready roll.

I cut the dough in half.This is a thin pizza so you don’t want to use this all just for one.

We use a pizza peel to roll this out.Place the pizza peel on a towel so it will not slide around.

Add a little flour to the pizza peel to prevent the pizza dough from sticking.

We like to roll our dough out.So start rolling and make sure to get it to the size of the pan or baking stone you are using.We like using a stone to bake it on.

After you roll it out to the size that will fit your stone place it on the stone.

Time to assemble the margherita pizza.You can do this any way you would like.

We added the cheese first.

Then the garlic…tomatoes …and basil.

Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and drizzle just a bit of olive oil over it and then it is ready to bake.

At 425 for 10-15 min or until the edges are golden brown.

Once you eat this pizza it will be hard to eat it any other way!

I serve this with a nice garden salad.One pizza is enough for us.I place the rest of the dough in a zip lock bag and make it the next night.Make sure to only use fresh ingredients for this.It will not taste the same using package cheese or dried basil.That is wh