Four Cheese Margherita Pizza

It is getting closer to our Graduation Party on Saturday. Last night I did some of the shopping; picked up Alyssa at the airport, she had a delayed flight and missing luggage; and I tried out a new recipe for Four Cheese Margherita Pizza.

The highlight of the night was Alyssa getting home and being surprised that her sister Nicole was here. Nicole is spending part of the summer back in Boulder to take a summer school course, and Alyssa was told that Nicole was not going to make it home for her party. In reality Nicole has been here all week and keeping it a secret from Alyssa has been a bit of a challenge.

The plan was to have Alyssa help me make the pizza, but because of her delayed flight I made them before she landed. They were easy and pretty quick to put together. I picked up raw pizza doug from Trader Joe’s on the way home from work. Alyssa wanted the whole wheat and I wanted to try the original, so I made one pizza with each crust. Allowing the tomatoes time to marinate in the olive oil really added some nice flavor to the finished pizza. Yes, I enjoyed the tomatoes on the pizza! The combination of the four cheeses give the pizza layers of flavor – so good!

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced
8 ounces shredded Mozzarella cheese
4 ounces shredded Fontina cheese
10 fresh basil leaves, washed, dried
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 packages of raw pizza dough or pizza dough to make 2 12-inch pizzas

DIRECTIONS:

Stir together olive oil, garlic, and salt; toss with tomatoes, and allow to stand for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Brush each pizza crust with some of the tomato marinade.
Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with Mozzarella and Fontina cheeses.
Arrange tomatoes overtop.
Sprinkle with shredded basil, Parmesan, and feta cheese.
Bake in preheated oven until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown, about 14 minutes.

The dough needs thirty minutes to rest. While it was resting, I began getting the toppings ready. The sliced tomatoes also need 15 minutes to marinate.

I prefer to chop my basil up a bit. I do love the look of the whole leaves, but I find the chopped pieces easier to eat.

So good and bursting with flavor!

I pulled out my party supplies – linens, cutlery, plates, napkins, glassware, and serving dishes. A quick run to the dollar store combined with what I have, and it looks like I am about ready with the party supplies.

Hopefully tonight those canning jars you can see in the back of the picture will be filled with carrot cake cupcakes. It is a busy day though – so not sure how much I will be able to get done tonight.