Caprese Pizza with Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil

Name: Caprese Pizza: Thin Crust with Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Pizza dough 400 g; Ripe tomatoes 2; Fresh mozzarella 150 g; Fresh basil 1 bunch; Salt, olive oil, oregano, balsamic vinegar to taste

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30 mins

Caprese pizza is easy to make, and its topping consists of the same ingredients as the salad of the same name, so it is a very tasty and wholesome dish. The pizza is made on thin dough without tomato sauce, as a pizza bianca. The prepared dough is brushed with plain olive oil, which replaces the sauce, the topping for baking is mozzarella and ripe tomatoes, and the green basil goes on after baking.

It’s worth adding a little salt and dried oregano to the topping, which noticeably boosts the flavor. A few drops of balsamic vinegar also bring out the taste of the tomatoes. You can use ordinary yeast dough, dough with baking powder, or dough made the “cold” way, which gives a crispy crust and a soft middle.

5 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

34 cm pizza

Pizza dough 400 g
Ripe tomatoes 2
Fresh mozzarella 150 g
Fresh basil 1 bunch
Salt, olive oil, oregano, balsamic vinegar to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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The tastiest Caprese pizza is made on thin dough. The best option is to make a cold-fermented yeast dough. Prepare it the day before and keep it in a container in the fridge. Before baking, let it warm up and rise a little, then stretch it onto the baking pan. By the way, don’t roll the dough out, or most of the carbon dioxide bubbles will be pushed out. It stretches very well by hand. Brush the pizza base with olive oil; 1 tbsp is enough.
For the topping, as for the salad, you need ripe red tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, which you only need to take out of its liquid, and a bunch of the freshest green basil. Of course, the herbs are not baked as part of the topping: they would simply dry out and spoil. Pick the desired amount of fresh leaves and set them aside to add right before serving the pizza.
Blot the mozzarella with a napkin to remove drops of moisture and cut it into thin slices; they can be large in area. Cut the ripe tomatoes into thin slices too. The original salads and pizza use San Marzano tomatoes, which are elongated and not very juicy. They are rare here, so you can take local tomatoes, salt the slices with a pinch of salt after cutting and let the moisture drain, and it works great. Arrange the cheese and tomatoes radially on the dough, alternating a slice of mozzarella and a slice of tomato so that they overlap at the edge, the same way the ingredients of the salad are laid out.
Sprinkle the topping with a pinch of dried oregano and a little balsamic vinegar, then olive oil. That finishes preparing the topping for baking. Preheat the oven to 180-190°C and put in the pan with the pizza. As a rule, Caprese pizza bakes in about 20 minutes. It may take less time, or you may need to add some. Go by the browning of the bottom of the dough and the rim.
Move the finished pizza from the pan onto a serving board, cut it into pieces, then lay green basil leaves over the topping and serve at once, before they wilt from the heat. With “cold” yeast dough the pizza turns out New York style, with a wonderful crispy crust and a soft middle of dough with the topping. It’s very good with tomato juice.