Pepper & Basil Pizza Margarita

Make your own pizza dough with a simple marinara sauce, mozzarella, garden fresh peppers and fresh basil leaves. I finally harvested the remaining 40 peppers growing in my hoop house. So we decided to make some grilled fennel sausage with peppers and onions and a basil dough pizza.



Pizza Dough:

2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tsp minced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon salt

Marinara Sauce:

Toppings:

mozzarella cheese
grated pecorino cheese
sliced green peppers
fresh basil leaves
olive oil
sea salt and white pepper


Add 1 tablespoon of yeast to warm water and sugar, stir. Let sit for 7 minutes until it just begins to bubble. Pour into mixing bowl, add olive oil and basil leaves. Blending on medium speed, mix in one cup of flour at a time with salt until it forms into a ball. Dust a cutting board with flour and knead dough for 8 minutes. Lightly coat a large bowl with olive oil, transfer dough and cover with Saran wrap and a small towel on top. Let rise in a warm area for 1 1/2 hours.

When dough becomes 2-3 times it's original size, spread onto floured board knead a little and cut into 2 pieces. Form into round disks. Whenever I make pizza dough, I toss one of the rounds into the freezer for a quickie dinner another time. Roll out the dough to 10 inches and place on pizza sheet pan. Drizzle over a bit of olive oil, then add marinara sauce, sliced peppers, fresh whole basil leaves, pecorino cheese, and top with mozzarella cheese. Shake your favorite herb blend -- I use oregano, thyme, savory & basil , a bit of sea salt & white pepper and bake in a 450 degree oven till the top is crispy and the mozzarella cheese is bubbly. Slice and just dig in. Enjoy!