fresh tomato pizza

it looks like the tomato bottom end rot crisis has been averted.  as you can see the tomato harvest bounty has begun.  i went out of town for 4 days and came back to a garden full of delicious veggies ready to be eaten.  besides just making a quick tomato salad with olive oil, vinegar, salt and basil, one of my favorite quick ways to eat them is on pizza.  i have in the past tried to make my own pizza dough, but i don't think it tastes any better than the dough you can get at trader joes, plus it's a lot easier and quicker to use the ready made stuff.

i first made a quick sauce for the pizza by chopping up some of my roma tomatoes.  since i didn't want to spend a long time cooking the sauce, i've found that a quick easy way to add more flavor is to simply add a few tablespoons of tomato paste.  the concentrated flavor in the tomato paste really adds to the sauce.  i also added some garlic and olive oil.  

once the sauce was ready, i cut up some of my yellow golden girl tomatoes, some fresh mozzarella, and some fresh basil.  i decided to use the purple basil because i thought it contrasted nicely with the yellow tomatoes.  i baked the pizza at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes.

ready for the oven

ready to eat

fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.  it's no wonder the colors of the italian flag are green, white, and red.

here's a little tip regarding tomato paste.  since it's nearly impossible to use all of a can of tomato paste in one recipe, i scoop out portions about 1 tablespoon each.  i wrap each portion in plastic wrap, then put into a freezer bag and freeze them.  whenever i need a little tomato paste, i just pull out one of the packets and throw it into whatever i'm cooking.  it defrosts pretty quickly.