Quick and Easy Margherita Pizza

My dad just went to Italy recently and he informed me that a Margherita pizza is just a pizza with tomato sauce and cheese. My suspicions, however, are that he did not even have any Margherita pizza in Italy and he is just pretending to know what he is talking about. In fact, what he was thinking of was pizza marinara. Duh. Pizza Margherita or - in English - Margherita pizza (hard translation, that), is made with fresh tomatoes and basil and che- well, I won't get ahead of myself. The point it, I was right and my dad was wrong. Hah!

This recipe is as easy or as hard as you make it. You will soon see why.

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-Pizza dough
-Tomato sauce
-Fresh mozzarella
-Ripe tomatoes, sliced
-Fresh basil
-A little olive oil

So, as far as the dough goes - that's really what determines the ease of the recipe. You could make it from scratch, but pizza dough takes a while to make and homemaking dough is a royal pain in the you-know-where, so, in the immortal words of every mafia gangster ever, forget about it.

My method was very easy. I bought those little frozen dough loaves from the grocery store, covered one with oil and covered it to thaw. When it rose, I had my husband cut in in half and roll it out on a floured surface, then put it in our little pizza pan. It wasn't perfect, but who even cares?

Lightly top the dough with pizza sauce. I just used a store-bought kind. Garlicky. Yum!

For best results, I urge you to use fresh mozzarella. My husband couldn't stop raving about how delicate the flavour of the fresh mozzarella was compared to that of the non-fresh variety. The packaged mozzarella you get at the store has a bunch of salt in it, which really changes the flavour. Fresh mozzarella is... well... fresh. Ours came in a little bag and it was about a handful. Just slice it up and up it on the pizza. Don't worry that there are cheese-less gaps. It will melt.

Slice the tomatoes. Add them to the pizza.

I used a small handful of fresh basil leaves. I recommend soaking them in olive oil first so they don't dry out in the oven. Place the basil leaves on the pizza. Easy.

Cook the pizza for 15-20 minutes at 425° F.

This was a small pizza, but it was sufficient for my little family of three. If you have a huge appetite or a larger family, just make more. It's so easy and I made it all within a half hour.

Enjoy!