Fresh is best! Discover how making a no-sauce pizza with fresh grape tomatoes can take the flavor up a notch on pizza night. Amber from A Toasted Crumb has just the recipe for you with her Roasted Tomato Pizza.
There are hundreds of ways to enjoy snacking tomatoes, but homemade pizza is one of our favorites. There are so many options and so many different ways to explore their juicy flavor!
Juno® Bites have a supple, crisp crunch with every bite that bursts with a sweet juice. It’s the definition of freshness and classic tomato flavor – in cute little bite-sized packages.
It’s that juicy crunch that makes these sweet tomatoes such a great snack. No wonder kids love them so much! It’s also why people love to add them to homemade pizza. But this pizza from Amber is different – for good reason.
This Roasted Tomato Pizza trades the crisp crunch of Juno® Bites for extra savory, sweet and caramelized flavor. Instead of adding the tomatoes fresh to her pizza, Amber roasts them first, allowing their flavor to become more concentrated.
When using roasted tomatoes on your homemade pizza, you’ll notice a few important differences compared to pizzas with fresh tomatoes or pizza sauce. That savory tomato flavor doesn’t blend into the crust or cheese like it does with traditional pizza. Instead, each bite contains a robust, full burst of flavor.
There’s something rustic and traditional about using roasted tomatoes in a homemade pizza. When you pair that with ricotta cheese, garlic, and arugula, you get a pizza that instantly makes you feel at home.
To make Amber’s Roasted Tomatoes Pizza, start by taking out your pizza stone and warming it up in the oven at 500°F for one full hour.
The reason why you want to heat up your pizza stone for so long before baking the pizza is so that the pizza crust cooks evenly. Have you ever made homemade pizza and ended up with spots that are soft, but other spots that are a little too crunchy or burnt? That’s where the real magic of pizza stones comes in!
While the pizza stone is heating up, you can prepare the ingredients. Roll out the pizza dough on your countertop. Be generous with the flour so it doesn’t stick! Then, mix together garlic, parsley and salt in olive oil and brush the mixture over the pizza dough.
Next, prepare the ricotta cheese. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta with a splash of olive oil, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Fluff it with your hands so it will stand up on your pizza instead of flattening.
When the pizza stone is nice and hot, turn the oven down to 400°F. Sprinkle an even layer of fresh grated mozzarella cheese over the dough. Then, sprinkle ricotta mixture over the pizza, ensuring each slice has an equal amount.
This is where the magic happens.
Slice the Juno® Bites in half and press them into the cheese and dough with the inside facing up. This will allow them to roast quickly on the pizza without needing to cook them separately.
Now that all the ingredients have come together in beautiful fashion, you can slide the pizza into the oven onto the stone. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until you see the top of the crust begin to turn golden and the cheese melt. To get perfect cheesy pizza, flip your oven to broil for about a minute until the cheese starts to bubble. Then it’s ready to remove and let cool.
Finally, when the pizza has cooled slightly, top with fresh arugula and crushed red pepper flakes.
Enjoy your homemade pizza with roasted tomatoes!
To make Amber’s Roasted Tomato Pizza , click here.
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