Margherita Pizza 🍕
I didn’t plan this Friday night meal as a blog entry but after bite number one, I knew it was a must-share! Crispy, salty, fresh, bright and oh so satisfying! The herb flatbread is what truly sets this pizza off, I randomly added it to my online grocery cart and I’m so glad for that impulse buy! This crusty rustic bread topped with the classic marriage of sweet & sour of tomatoes + fragrant basil could quite possibly be the most perfect meal. I would recommend trying to find the freshest flatbread you can — gluten & all if you can tolerate it. This margherita pizza is so rewarding for so little effort.
Ingredients;
1 large flatbread, sliced in half to make quite thin if needed (this is what I did with my bread)
1 can San Marzano crushed tomatoes, you’ll only need about 1/3 cup
1 garlic clove, pressed
Half tub of Kite Hill ricotta cheese
Handful cherry tomatoes, about six sliced thin as possible
10 large basil leaves, julienned
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
To Make:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, if you have a pizza stone place it in to heat up. If no stone- put a baking sheet in the oven to start heating.
If your flatbread is thick like mine was, slice in half so that you’ve got a thin crust
Brush the bread with olive oil so that it bakes up golden and crusty
Put the bread into the oven for ten minutes on the sheet or pizza stone, check it often to ensure it doesn’t get too brown. You should see specks of browning on the ridges.
Once golden, remove from oven and add the crushed tomatoes. I like San Marzano because they taste the freshest from the can! You may be tempted to go overboard and slather your newly toasted bread with much, much sauce. Don’t do it! Add enough sauce just enough to cover your bread.
— If you add too much sauce you risk your bread becoming mushy. Nobody wants that!
After the sauce, sprinkle your minced garlic evenly. Just this one garlic clove will bring a nice bite to the pizza. Sprinkle with salt & pepper.
Break up the ricotta evenly over the pizza and add your sliced cherry toms.
Place the topped pizza back into the oven for about 8 minutes. Keep an eye out, the ricotta won’t turn golden or melt. You just want to see everything heated up and starting to marry.
Remove and top with the fresh basil, pinch of salt, red pepper flakes if you like and olive oil.
