"Homemade Pizza"

While this isn't really a recipe, it's a good reminder that making "homemade" pizza can be a quick and fun activity, and is infinitely superior to the boxed variety.

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Pizza

*Trader Joe's Pre-made pizza dough, fresh herb (sold in small bags in the refrigerated section of the store.
* Tomato sauce (we used Classico's Red Bell Pepper and Roasted Garlic)
* 1/2 an onion
* 2 zucchini
* 4 artichoke hearts, (canned in water)
* minced garlic (to taste)
* Fontina Cheese (about 2 cups)
* Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes (also from trader joes)

Ed and I were in the mood for pizza and, since we were given a very nice toaster oven for Christmas, from Ed's Brother Tom, that promised it could cook a 12 inch pizza, we decided to give it a try.

We began by pre-heating the toaster oven at the "pizza setting". We realized afterwards that this setting is probably for frozen pizza and wasn't quite hot enough for ours. Next time, we'll set it at 450 like the dough packaging recommends.

Once the oven we going we started cooking the onion and zucchini. I like crisp zucchini, so I cooked the onion first, until it was slightly caramelized, and then cooked my zucchini over a higher temperature, sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Once they were cooked, we put them aside.

Next, we took the artichoke hearts and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then, we put them in a pan with some minced garlic and cooked a minute or two, until slightly browned.

Once the "cooking" was done, we were ready to assemble the pizza.

The fun part was making the crust. Ed and I took turns turning and stretching it until it reached the 12 inch size needed to cover our pan. Once it was made, we put down a thin layer of tomato sauce, and then covered with our onion, zucchini and garlic artichoke hearts.

After our layer of veggies, we coated the pizza with a layer of fontina cheese.

Next, we put down a layer of sliced heirloom cherry tomatoes, face down.

We put the pizza in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It was very delicious and fresh tasting, and we especially loved the dough. We topped it with some parmesan and red pepper flakes to give it some spice. The dough wasn't quite as crispy as we would have liked, and next time we'll pre-heat the pan to see if that helps.

All in all, though, a very successful meal of pizza!