Fresh Mozzarella, Roasted Tomato and Pesto Pizza

The other day I was really in the mood for pizza but wanted to try something different. I knew I had a container of grape tomatoes at home so I decided to make one myself rather than going to a favorite pizza place. Instead of a sauce, I decided to make roasted tomatoes. They’re really good! I often make them and use them on salads and sandwiches.

Set the oven to 350 or 375. In a pan ( I used pyrex but you can use a metal pan), pour in a container of (rinsed and dried off) grape tomatoes.

Add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkling of kosher salt, and a pinch of sugar. if it was only for myself, I would have also added black pepper. Mix it around and put it in the oven for a half hour to 45 minutes.

After that time, it will look like this – a bit wrinkled and blistery.

For the crust you have a few options:

A – Make it yourself

B – Buy it from your favorite pizza place

C – Buy any pizza dough you can find at the supermarket

I’ve actually tried all of the above at different times but in this particular instance, I was short on time and already at the supermarket so I opted for this….

You of course can use whatever you like. So I rolled out the dough out onto a lightly greased pan ( I used olive oil) it was very thin and breaking so I had to pinch sections together to fix the holes.

The directions said to pre-bake the dough for 5 minutes so while that was cooking, I started on the fresh mozzarella.

I cut the whole thing into thin slices..

This is what the dough looked like after 5 minutes

So now I started assembling. First I put a layer of store bought pesto sauce. Again – feel free to make it on your own if you so desire.

Next put on the roasted tomatoes,

followed by the slices of fresh mozzarella and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.

I put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes. Time was running out because i had to leave to pick up my daughter from school. While it was cooking I chopped up some fresh flat leaf parsley.

When it was ready, the crust became a golden brown and the cheese became gooey. I sprinkled on the parsley and ran out the door! Not even enough time to take a bite!

As we were heading back from school, she asked “mom – why are you running?!?” There’s a pizza calling my name!!

The whole combination was great! The pesto was full of flavor and was the salty element. The roasted tomatoes had a deep tomato taste and the cheese was just a mellow and gooey delight! YUM!