TBP+ (Tomato Basil Pizza PLUS)

You guys, I'm totally lame and running out of ideas for recipe titles. Hence the awkward acronym. The good news is, the product was not near as lame as the name of it.

I'm really excited to share this with you all. Growing up, I think we had frozen pizza at least once a week (usually when Dad was in charge of dinner or lunch), so I can say it's definitely one of my staple/go-to food items. Most people have macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes as comfort food, mine is frozen pizza.

When I went to college, I could never convince myself to buy frozen pizza. We had mini fridges in the dorms, and the half of the pint size freezer I could call my own didn't fit pizzas. Plus, I was a dietetics student. I have a reputation to live up to! Even when I moved into a house, I never felt like buying pizza (but that was also because Jeff and Jim's Pizza was too hard to pass up on the days I had cravings, so I never needed it anyway.)

So now I feel like, it's been four years since I have had my very own frozen pizza, why start now? Especially when you have all the means to make a delicious recipe that's all your own? So, yesterday when the jonesin' for pizza came a-callin', I responded with a fantastic idea.

Tomato Basil pizza, of course!

I had a version of this at Punch Pizza in Minneapolis when I went to visit my cousins at St. Thomas, and then again when I went to Polito's Pizza in Stevens Point. It's hard to make something quite as delicious as it is at a restaurant, but I think Josh and I did a pretty dang good job!

The Recipe


Dough
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Toppings
1 small can pizza sauce
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
4 leaves fresh basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 white onion, diced

I can let you in on our little secret: a bread machine. They are the best invention ever. All you have to do is toss your ingredients in for the dough, and it does all the work for you (besides adding toppings and baking it..)! I just put in all those ingredients in that order into the bread machine and selected "dough" as the option. It took about an hour and 20 minutes to process everything into a dough, so be prepared for a little waiting game.


Once it is ready, flour the countertop and your hands and knead the dough a little bit. Roll out the dough in the shape and thickness you want it to be, and place it on a greased pizza pan. (We like to put tin foil on top of the pan so clean up is easier, but it's totally up to you. Spread some olive oil over the top of the raw dough and with the red pepper flakes and bake for 3 minutes at 425 degrees.

Take the crust out and spread on the toppings in this order: pizza sauce, cheese, tomatoes, onion, basil, and oregano. Then bake the pizza for 20-25 minutes.

Then you're done! Enjoy!