Sunday, June 7, 2009

Pizza with Meatballs, Basil, and Fresh Mozzarella

We made this recently using pizza dough from Wegmans and our homemade sauce and meatballs (recipe to follow shortly). It was delicious! You could of course swap out the toppings with anything you wish, but these made a tasty combination.


Ingredients:

-Dough for one pizza (we bought fresh at Wegmans, but if you're ambitious you could try Alton Brown's recipe)

- 1/4 cup good tomato sauce

- 4-6 meatballs, cut in chunks (you may need more or fewer, depending on size. I like 'em big)

- 1 8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella, sliced into circles

- several basil leaves, torn

Instructions:

Knead dough. Cover and let rest for several minutes. Preheat a standard size pizza stone in oven. (This was my first time working with a pizza stone, and it worked SO much more nicely than a regular pan! And they are not too expensive - I'd definitely recommend purchasing if you don't already have one.) Flour a work surface and rolling pin, then roll out dough into circular shape. Don't worry if it won't get quite as big as you want it to or keeps shrinking back on itself - the next step will fix it. Remove preheated pizza stone from oven and place dough circle on hot stone. Quickly roll out dough to edges of stone: dough will stick to hot stone allowing you to roll it thinner. (Thanks, Darrell, for this smart tip!)


Once pizza shell is prepared, top with a thin layer of good quality tomato sauce. Sprinkle meatball pieces on top of sauce. Layer on mozzarella slices. Bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and beginning to brown and crust is golden brown underneath. Top with torn basil leaves. (We put ours on before baking, but next time I'm going to wait till after so that the basil won't wilt.)



Allow to rest for a few minutes, then slice and serve with your favorite wine. We liked this Leonard Kreusch Riesling.

Enjoy!