Homemade tomato pizza

I'm not a huge fan of pizza normally (unless it's Home Slice), but this bad boy was real good. And easy. As seems to be the trend lately, this recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. It's kind of like a hybrid margherita pizza, except with ricotta/Parmesan and oregano instead of mozzarella and basil. And no garlic. Soooo maybe the only thing they have in common are tomatoes. Whatever, it was good.

Here's whatcha need:

- 48 oz (or 3 pints) of cherry tomatoes
- 1 sliced big tomato, we used an heirloom (which are shaped so strangely but are yummy!)
- 1 cup of ricotta cheese
- 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- fresh oregano leaves

And the recipe called for actual pizza dough that you would roll out, but we improvised with a store bought pizza crust and it was dang good anyway.

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Mix up your cheeses and egg, then season the mixture with salt and pepper. Brush the crust with some olive oil, then spread the cheese mixture on top, leaving a 1 inch border. Separately toss the cherry tomatoes with about 2 tbs of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet. Put the pizza in the oven at the top third (we baked ours on a pizza pan) and the cherries at the bottom third for about 15 minutes until your cherries tomatoes have burst and your pizza is golden brown. The tomatoes will finish first, so you may need to leave in your pizza crust for a few more minutes. Keep an eye on it though, you don't want burnt crust!

Put your pizza crust on a cutting board. Toss the cherry tomatoes with your fresh tomato slices and season with more salt and pepper to taste. Then spread it on your pizza and top with oregano. Slice it all up and enjoy!

YUM! Fresh tomatoes are my favorite. This pizza will be made again, and soon. And can we take a moment to check out my hunk of a husband?

You make pizza cutting look good, Mr. Hogan.

Also, bonus for this awesome recipe, we used a smaller size pizza crust than the recipe called for (12" versus 16") so we had some extra roasted and sliced tomatoes left over. We saved that nonsense and are going to throw it on some pasta later in the week.

Pretty sure it's going to be amazing. And any meal that you can stretch into two (or three!) is always a winner in my book!

Tomato Pie

It's been a long while since I've posted any food up on this blog. I blame it on my zero time/energy to cook. And laziness. And Home Slice pizza.

A couple weeks or so ago, before my life got extra cray, we made tomato pie! I'd heard rumors of it on the internet and then my step mom made one not too long ago and it looked amazing. So we made it happen. It's super easy.

I used this recipe, but altered a bit. Yes, that is half a cup of mayonnaise on the ingredients list, I don't play around. And anything with fresh basil is usually a winner. That basil plant on our window sill was the best investment ever. I left out the onion (because I'm not a fan) and added squash, zucchini, and mushrooms. So I guess it was less of a tomato pie than a veggie pie. Variety is the spice of life. I ended up cutting up WAY too many veggies, I probably could have made two pies. But it was okay, we threw them in a ziploc baggie and had them a couple nights later with cheese sauce, bonus! Cooking/smothering the healthiness out of vegetables is my specialty.

Anyway, this pie nonsense was good. It was hella rich, but yummy. It would be perfect for winter time, which is a bummer since tomatoes are summer veggies. But it was good and if you aren't scared off by the mayo, I suggest you try it. And you could totally leave out the mayo anyway. It's a great one dish meal that you can throw in the oven, forget about, remember, and then eat.

Go buy some fresh 'maters and try it y'all!