Prosecutor's Pizza (with Roasted Tomatoes, Veggies & Basil)

Ingredients

1 basic pizza dough (See - LegalEats Basic Pizza Dough Recipe)
2 - 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 - 6 plum or Roma tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely shredded
1 lb. part-skim or regular mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (or Pecorino Romano) cheese for topping
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Dried Italian spices (oregano and basil), to taste
Dash of garlic powder (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix fresh tomatoes (and/or your favorite veggies such as sliced zucchini, eggplant and red onions) with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried Italian spices and place in a roasting sheet (lined with aluminum foil lightly sprayed with cooking spray for easy clean up).
Roast tomatoes and any other sliced veggies using, in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes (or longer depending on which veggies you are using) or grill veggies on outdoor grill for 2-3 minutes per side.
After tomatoes and veggies are roasted to desired doneness, remove from oven and let cool at room temperature (so you don't burn your hands when assembling pizza).
Lightly coat pizza pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil. After kneading and rolling dough out on a floured cutting board, spread fresh dough onto a lightly oiled pizza pan forming thicker crust at rim (or use store bought prepared dough that you rolled out to fit into your pizza pan).
Top dough evenly with roasted tomatoes in a circle. Add half the shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over pizza dough (leaving a small space around rim). Top with any other roasted veggies you are using, if any. Top veggies with remaining mozzarella cheese.
Add freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle top with fresh basil and grated cheese.
Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over top of pizza before baking.
Bake at 450 - 500 degrees for approximately 15 - 20 minutes (depending on your oven) on the lowest rack in the oven, until crust is evenly browned and cheese is completely melted.
Remove pizza from oven, wait 10 minutes for pizza to set and slice on cutting board.

Comments: Add a large mixed green salad dressed simply with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Greek olives, if desired, and serve with the pizza (to balance out your meal). You'll never want to eat take-out pizza again after making your own! My late paternal grandmother, who I was named after, lived next door to us when I was growing up in Brooklyn and she often made pizza on weekends and would send us over a large square shaped pizza for us to enjoy. Her crispy pizza crust had a deep golden yellow hue due to the addition of semolina flour she added to her dough mixture. Her pizza was delicious and inspiring!

LegalEats Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

Ingredients

1 package of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup warm water
3 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or use 3 cups all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup semolina flour)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, soften yeast and honey in 1/4 cup of the warm water. Stir & set aside.
In a mixer fitted with dough hooks, combine the flour (and semolina, if using) and the salt. Add 2 tablespoons oil to flour mixture. Pour in dissolved yeast mixture. Add the remaining warm water to flour mixture and knead on low speed about 5 minutes.
Remove dough from mixing bowl and knead dough several minutes on a well floured surface, until smooth and elastic.
Lightly oil a large bowl with olive oil and add dough ball. Cover bowl with a slightly damp kitchen towel.
Let dough rise in the large bowl in a warm place (such as a kitchen counter but do not refrigerate dough at this point) until dough is doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
Next, think of your worst adversary and punch down dough vigorously to deflate!
Knead the dough several more minutes on a well floured surface, shape into a large ball again, and return dough ball to large bowl with damp towel on top and let the dough rise a second time for at least another hour. Punch dough down again to deflate.
At this point you are ready to roll out dough to fit your pizza pan and prepare your pizza or you can now refrigerate your dough to use later or the next day.

Note: Homemade pizza dough is probably best made on weekends when you may have more time since the dough needs time to rise. As an alternative to fresh made dough, just use a good store bought ball of fresh made pizza dough.

Comments: In recent years, I found really good prepared pizza dough made fresh daily at the bakery of my local grocery store, as well as in Italian specialty food stores. The prepared store bought pizza dough works best when you use it as soon as possible for freshness. The pizza prep time is cut down quite a bit when using a store bought pizza dough. Just be sure to refrigerate it as soon as you bring it home to keep the dough fresh and when ready to make pizza, just remove it from the refrigerator at least 1 & 1/2 hours beforehand to bring dough ball to room temperature before rolling it out to fit your lightly oiled pizza pan. While the prepared dough is coming to room temperature, just move on to prepping and oven roasting (or grilling) your favorite veggies, coated lightly with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried Italian seasonings. My favorite veggies to use as topping for pizza are, fresh roasted plum tomatoes, zucchini and red onions. Do not overload your pizza with too many toppings and cheese or else the crust will become soggy.