How to make the most delicious Caprese Pizza with roasted cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil spread and optional balsamic drizzle. Use store-bought pizza dough or make your own below!
Here’s a recipe for one of my favorite pizzas- Caprese Pizza! 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 it’s thin crust, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves.
How to make Caprese Pizza!
It starts with the pizza dough!
Feel free to make your own homemade pizza dough ( recipe below) 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!
Make the basil paste!
For an extra burst of flavor, the crust is brushed with a garlic, basil and olive oil paste -almost like pesto.
Time to assemble!
Top with mini Mozzarella Balls.
Add the roasted tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Bake at 450F until 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 fresh green salad -so satisfying and delicious!
Enjoy the Pizza!
xoxo
More recipes you may like:
- Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- Burrata Salad with Tomato & Nectarine
- Grilled Pizza with Figs, Balsamic Onions and Gorgonzola
Caprese Pizza
- Prep Time: 60
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: pizza
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
How to make Caprese Pizza with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil spread and optional balsamic drizzle. Use store-bought pizza dough or make your own below!
Ingredients
Scale
Pizza Ingredients
- 1 lb mixed cherry, grape and yellow pear tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- pinch salt and pepper
- 16 oz pizza dough, brought to room temp ( or make recipe below)
- ¾ cup basil leaves- divided
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 T olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 4–6 oz mini fresh mozzarella balls ( about 12 –14 balls)
- 2 oz grated pecorino Romano cheese ( optional but delicious)
- 1 tablespoon reduced balsamic vinegar (optional but delicious)
- 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 3/4 cup warm water (about 105°F)
- 2 cups pizza flour plus 3 tablespoons
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Set pizza dough on a floured surface and bring to room temp. Slice some of the tomatoes in half, leaving some whole. Toss tomatoes with 1 T 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.
- While tomatoes are roasting make basil garlic paste. In a food processor, pulse ½ C packed basil, 3 cloves garlic and salt -until chopped finely. Add 4 T olive oil, and pulse, scraping down the sides if necessary.
- 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-garlic paste 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.
- To make a reduced balsamic syrup: 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.
Pizza Dough:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the yeast, sugar and warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade, combine the flour and salt and pulse 3 or 4 times.
- Whisk 1 Tbs. of the olive oil into the yeast mixture. With the motor running, slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding more. Pulse the machine 10 to 15 times to knead the dough. The dough should clean the insides of the bowl but will be slightly sticky.
- Coat the inside of a large bowl with the remaining 1 Tbs. oil. Dust your hands with flour and remove the dough from the food processor. Form the dough into a ball and place in the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- Can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated or frozen.
Notes
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
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!
Oh my goodness this looks irresistible!!
This is TOTALLY my kind of pizza. Love this idea!!
This looks heavenly! I love all the flavours!
Thanks Millie… you are doing a great job on your blog!