Has your taste evolved over the years? I know that ours has. Years ago, Michael believed pizzas required red sauce. One Margherita pizza on our first trip to Sonoma changed all of that. It was the first time he had tasted a pizza without tomato sauce. Instead it had a base of crushed garlic and oil. Time to expand our palates!
Here’s another example of a few quality ingredients needing very little adornment. Start with a good store bought pizza dough unless you make your own. After rolling out the dough and placing it on a preheated pizza stone, spread a mixture of minced garlic and grapeseed oil over it. Then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and top with sliced tomatoes. Using the best tomatoes you can find, you won’t even need to salt them.
Why grapeseed oil? It has a higher smoke point than olive oil. Try it. You will like it.
After baking in a preheated 500 degree oven for 10 minutes or however long it takes for your crust to become golden, top with strips of fresh basil.
You don’t have any basil, you say? No problem. Here’s another variation using the same base of oil and garlic, mozzarella and sliced tomatoes.
Top with chopped Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese and bake to golden perfection. I will never say no to this pizza! What else might you top it with?
Read How to Make Our Favorite Pizza for step by step instructions for another amazing pizza without red sauce.