Simple Pleasures: Homemade Pizza

A round of pizza dough is to the cook what blank canvas is to the artist. For me, half the fun of homemade pizza consists in the marvellous colour combinations that result from the considered application of vegetables, herbs, and cheese (and sometimes meat). Here are two we enjoyed last Saturday night.

Red, white and green, recalling the Italian flag:

Pizza Margherita, with fresh tomato, basil
and Mozzarella over an olive-oil-brushed crust.

Cheerful purple, yellow and green:

Locavore's Delight, with fresh local zucchini, garlic, yellow pepper,
and red onion (which looks purple to me).
Parsley, rosemary and thyme from our own pots.
A bit of cream sauce under it all, and fresh Mozzarella on top.

If half the fun of pizza is topping it, the other half is eating it. We were lucky to come across some fresh Mozzarella on sale at a Madison grocery store last week ($2 a pound!). Very different from typical storebought Mozz, the fresh version adds an extra dimension of creamy lusciousness.

Another slice, please.

Make that two.

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