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Make a simple, delicious Caprese Pizza with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves and basil oil topped with a balsamic glaze. Use store-bought pizza dough or make your own!
Here’s a recipe for one of my favorite pizzas- Caprese Pizza! Think of this like a Caprese salad, but warm and melty on a cripsy pizza crust. Does it ever get better? The last of summer tomatoes are roasted in the oven until caramelized and tender, becoming evermore flavorful and rich, a delicious topping for this lightened-up version of Caprese Pizza with its thin pizza crust, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves.
Caprese Pizza Ingredeint Notes:
- Pizza Crust: Our favorite pizza dough is this sourdough pizza crust recipe, but feel free to make your favorite pizza crust recipe or use store-bought pizza dough. You can even use naan bread, flat bread or pita bread as the base in a pinch.
- Tomatoes: Here, we’ve roasted colorful cherry tomatoes ahead, but feel free to use ripe tomato slices.
- Fresh Mozzarella Cheese: Use fresh Mozzarella balls stored in water for the best texture and flavor here ( minis or full-sized, sliced) but grated mozzarella cheese or vegan mozzarella can also be used.
- Basil – we use basil in two ways! We make basil oil brush it on the crust, instead of a tomato sauce- and use fresh basil on the top.
- Balsamic glaze– optional, but yummy!
How to make Caprese Pizza!
It starts with the pizza dough. Feel free to make your own homemade pizza dough, or use store-bought! The thin-crust dough can be made ahead and refrigerated or for a quick weeknight meal.
Roast the tomatoes! This will give the tomatoes even more flavor! Or feel free to skip the roasting and just use sliced tomatoes!
Make the Basil Oil.
For an extra burst of flavor, the pizza crust is brushed with basil oil, so much flavor here!
Then layer with pizza with the mozzarella balls, or use fresh mozzarella slices.
Add the roasted tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Bake at 450F until the crust is cooked through!
Once the fragrant pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle with balsamic syrup and top with fresh basil leaves.
Serve with a big green salad -so satisfying and delicious! Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days and reheated in the oven.
Enjoy the Pizza!
xoxo
More recipes you may like:
- Basil Oil
- Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- Caprese Sandwich
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Burrata Salad with Tomato & Nectarine
- Grilled Pizza with Figs, Balsamic Onions and Gorgonzola
Caprese Pizza Recipe
- Prep Time: 60
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: pizza
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
How to make Caprese Pizza with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil oil and optional balsamic drizzle.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Pizza Ingredients
- 16 oz pizza dough, brought to room temp (or use store-bought)
- 1 lb mixed cherry, grape and yellow pear tomatoes (or use sliced tomatoes)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- pinch salt and pepper
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella balls (about 12 -14 mini balls, or slice)
- 2 oz grated pecorino Romano cheese ( optional but delicious)
- balsamic glaze (optional but delicious)
- Fresh basil leaves for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Set pizza dough on a floured surface and bring to room temp. If roasting cherry tomatoes ahead, slice some of the tomatoes in half, leaving some whole. Toss tomatoes with olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes until tender and lightly roasted. Alternatively used sliced tomatoes, no need to roast ahead.
- Make the Basil Oil. In a food processor, pulse ½ cup packed basil, 2 cloves garlic and salt -until chopped finely. Add 6 tablespoons olive oil, and pulse, scraping down the sides if necessary until combined.
- On a floured surface, roll out pizza dough into a very thin 16-18 inch round ( or 20 inch oblong). Place on a cornmeal-dusted sheet pan, or pizza stone. Spread the basil oil over the crust up to ½ inch of the outer edge.
- Cut mini mozzarella balls in half and place them on the pizza dough. Sprinkle pecorino romano cheese. Place roasted tomatoes on top, scattering evenly.
- Place pizza in the 450 F oven and bake 10-12 minutes, until cheese has melted and crust is crisp. Broil for 1-2 minutes more to give the tomatoes a little extra char if desired.
- Remove from oven, sprinkle with torn basil leaves and drizzle with a little balsamic syrup. Serve immediately.
Notes
To make balsamic glaze: bring any amount of balsamic vinegar to simmer in a small pot until reduced by half. When it coats the back of a spoon, it is done….it will thicken as it cools.
Makes 2 x 10-inch rounds or one 20-inch oblong.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 358
- Sugar: 3.5 g
- Sodium: 662.2 mg
- Fat: 17.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 37.9 g
- Fiber: 2.4 g
- Protein: 12.8 g
- Cholesterol: 24.8 mg
Keywords: caprese pizza, caprese pizza recipe
Made this for an appetizer for guests but used your sourdough crust recipe. So YUMMY!
★★★★★
I made this at the end of summer with tomatoes and it was DELICIOUS…and I just made it again without tomatoes (using the thawed out basil leaves that I had previously washed and frozen) and it was still GREAT! Thank you, Sylvia 🙂
CAPRESE PIZZA, make me hungry…
thank for share 🙂
Glek, I’m hungry after read this post.
Thanks for sharing.
Roasted pizza always give nice taste.
I always eat my mom-baked pizza withspicy taste…
Maybe roasted pizza is a good alternative.
That is one tasty looking pizza!
Perfect pizza for the end of the season. You are soooo right about the tomatoes. I didn’t grow any this year, but have a mighty source of wonderful small sweet sun ripened tomatoes. Perfect and easy way to use them.
The perfect last hooray for summer tomatoes! Beautiful!
I just drooled on my keyboard. Haha! The only thing better than a tomato is a roasted tomato. 🙂
Hahaha!
This is TOTALLY my kind of pizza. Love this idea!!
Oh my goodness this looks irresistible!!
This looks heavenly! I love all the flavours!
Thanks Millie… you are doing a great job on your blog!