By Jesse Wilson

This time of year, we have some delicious and fresh dinner solutions right in our home garden. My husband always has basil planted and, if you grow tomatoes, you’ll be halfway to this month’s quick and easy recipe. The following Margherita Pizza recipe is my own adaptation, using a simple foccia recipe as a base and taking a shortcut with pre-made dough. Serve this with your favorite salad, soup or as a side to any entree.

Margherita Pizza    (Printer friendly versions - Full page, 3x5)

Ingredients

Cooking spray

1 loaf pre-made French bread, such as Pillsbury low-fat bread dough

1/2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

4-5 medium sized tomatoes, sliced

3 Tbsp. fresh basil chopped or “confetti” style

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees or recommended temperature on dough package.

Use large cookie sheet and spray with cooking spray. Find seam on bread dough and place at end of cookie sheet. Completely unroll dough until you have a flat square surface. Cover with olive oil by spreading with hands. Sprinkle minced garlic over entire pizza area, no need to leave much crust. Cover with 1 cup of cheese.

Bake (at same temperature) until dough is brown and cheese is melted and slightly golden brown.

Remove from oven and cover evenly with tomato slices in a single layer. Cover with remaining cheese and bake again until second layer of cheese is melted. Add basil and place in oven for about one minute until basil is slightly wilted.

Cut into 8 square pieces and enjoy!

Serving Size, 1/8 of pizza

Nutrition per serving:

212.7 Calories, 11.6 g Protein, 9.22 g Fat, 20.77 g Carbohydrates, 0.77 g

Fiber, 428.28 g Sodium