When I make pizza, I love trying out usual combinations - remember the peach and escarole pizza or the one with hummus and vegetables? Well, sometimes I like to also go the classic route and keep things traditional.





This is the pizza you make when tomatoes are at their finest: fresh, ripe and bright red. Fresh basil from the market or your backyard garden if you've got the green thumb for it (sadly, I don't). I use green onions here, but fresh garlic would also be brilliant. Soft, fresh mozzarella would be nice if you've got it, but plain old party skimmed mozz works for me. Instead of a tomato sauce to cover the whole thing, I just spread over a little olive oil over the dough for a more rustic touch. Flakey salt and some freshly ground black pepper and that's about it. Simple and easy.


Tomato and Basil Pizza
your favorite pizza dough (homemade or fresh from a bakery/market)
2 T cornmeal
3 T olive oil
4-6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 bunch of basil, torn to bits
4 green onions, sliced
flaky kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
1 cup mozzarella, cut into small chunks

Preheat oven to 425F. After your pizza dough has risen, use 1 tablespoon of olive oil to grease up a walled cookie sheet. I use my hands for this. Sprinkle sheet with cornmeal and then push out or roll out your pizza dough until it spreads to all 4 corners. Spread the remaining olive oil over top.

Evenly scatter the tomatoes, basil and green onions over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with salt and a few good hefty grinds of black pepper. Add mozzarella over top and place in oven and heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese gets bubbly and the crust becomes golden. Slice and eat hot.