After a week of camping and living like mountaineers, Eric and I are back to civilization. A few days ago was our third anniversary and we went to my favorite spot on earth, Mt. Rainier. I have tons of photos from the trip, including some campfire recipes, but will save those for next week. Today I want to share a favorite new recipe of mine that’s great to use one of summer’s best treats…tomatoes.
We haven’t started getting tomatoes in our CSA yet, but a local farmer’s market had some greenhouse grown beauties in red and yellow that were calling my name. It was one of those evening where you’ve worked hard all week and nothing sounds better than pizza (and maybe a cold beer!). I love fresh tomatoes on pizza but they have a tendency to ooze their juiciness all over and make for a soggy crust. That’s where the roasting comes in.
By pre-roasting the tomatoes for about 20 minutes, a lot of their juice is cooked out and their sweetness is suddenly beyond belief. This adds some time to making your pizza but it’s totally worth it. If you’ve made my slow roasted cherry tomatoes, they’d also be perfect for this. I used my last jar last month so am ready for tomatoes to come out so I can make some more!
This pizza uses my no-rise pizza dough recipe, you can use half of it for a thin crust or the whole recipe for thick crust (just pre-bake it a little longer), you can also sub your own favorite pizza dough.
Roasted Tomato Pizza
makes 1 thin crust pizzaIngredients
2 red tomatoes
1 yellow tomato
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 batch of no rise pizza dough
2 TBS melted butter
2 TBS finely grated parmesan
1/2 orange bell bell pepper thinly sliced
8 kalamata olives pitted and quartered
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3/4 cup crumbled fresh mozzarella cheese
2 TBS chopped fresh oregano
Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut each tomato into 8 wedges and remove core. Mix tomatoes in a bowl with olive oil, salt and dried oregano. Place in a single layer on a rimmed cookie sheet and roast in the oven 20-25 minutes until tomatoes are soft and collapsing on themselves.
Stretch the pizza dough and lay onto a well oiled cookie sheet. Use a rolling pin (or can if you sheet has rims that aren’t wide enough) to roll the dough out to fit the sheet. Bake 3-5 minutes until dough has started to crisp slightly.
Remove crust and use a fork to pierce any air bubbles. Use a brush to spread melted butter on the crust. Sprinkle with the parmesan.
Spread tomatoes out on the crust and then add bell pepper strips and kalamata olives. Evenly sprinkle the pizza with crumble feta and mozzarella. Bake from 8-15 minutes depending on how cooked you want it. (I like to take it out when the cheese is melted and just turned golden.)
Remove from oven, sprinkle with fresh oregano. Let sit two minutes before slicing into 8 rectangular pieces to serve.
Approximate cost/serving: When tomatoes are in their peak this recipe is especially affordable. I buy my mozzarella and feta whole in large quantities and crumble them myself to save money. That means this comes out to only about $1.50 for two slices, much cheaper than delivery!
Vegetarian/Gluten Free: Although not vegan, there’s no meat here. To make it gluten free use a pre-mixed or homemade gluten free pizza dough.
Gorgeous. I love the sound of this dish. I have so many tomatoes on the vine in my backyard that this sounds perfect.
I definately want to try a pizza with home grown tomatoes. Thanks for letting me know how to can “sun-dried” tomatoes. I assume you just use a water bath technique and not a pressure canner? This week is do something with all the tomatoes! I hope all is well.