Californian Margarita Pizza

I love, love homemade pizza crust. I find myself spending every other Sunday prepping homemade pizza crusts and pitas for the weeks ahead. But what is there to do on alternate weeks when I’m too tired to spend the majority of the afternoon kneading and baking homemade flat breads, but still want homemade pizza.

I cheat. That’s right, once again this month I provide you with an at-home semi-homemade alternative to the store-bought. First, If you have time to make your own crust—go for it! If you don’t, this recipe is a good way to go. I also recommend using pita bread as a quick alternative. Just not those horrible vacuum sealed pre-made crusts you see next to the pepperoni at your grocery store. I’m sorry, those will ruin your pizza.

For a fresh baked alternative to making your own, I really like Pillsbury’s roll up Thin Crust in the refrigerated section. No, it’s probably not the healthiest option for you but we are already eating pizza so at this point it’s okay to live a little.

I love the classic Margarita pizza with mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, but I wanted to take it up a notch by adding delicate prosciutto and ripe avocado. With that I sensed a pretty clear California vibe going on with my pizza. You probably know what I mean by that. Californian cuisine is known for its fusion of ethnic and fresh ingredients; such as Wasabi Salmon on a cedar plank, etc. etc. Hence, the California Margarita was born.

I love how the classic flavors of the margarita goes so well with the ripe avocado and the buttery prosciutto. All together this pizza has a light, almost sweet undertone to the savory. A.ka. delicious.

This is definitely perfect for summer when all of these ingredients (tomatoes, basil, avocado) are at their peak of freshness. But, here in Texas I was missing summer so instead I used the grocery store staple-cherry tomatoes, prepackaged basil, and a ripe avocado. Please don’t judge me, I had a craving.

Whether it is mid-August or mid-January, this pizza will be a crowd pleaser hands down.

Californian Margarita Pizza

Makes one large pizza, 8 slices

Ingredients:

1 roll Pillsbury thin crust

1/2-2/3 cup pizza sauce (homemade is the best)

10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

6 leaves Basil, snipped

1 ripened avocado, thinly sliced, and in chunks

1 1/2 cup five cheese mix

1.2 cup Parmesan, freshly grated

2-3 slices prosciutto, Parma ham, cut into slices

Truffle oil

Black pepper

1/2 tsp. Garlic powder

Substitutions: If you don't eat pork products like me, tried crisped turkey bacon or just skip for vegetarian.

For gluten-free, make your own gluten-free crust such as this super soft, chewy one from King Arthur.

Directions:

If using Pillsbury’s thin crust, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll pizza crust unto pan and prebake for 5 minutes.

Take out of pan and cover with sauce. Sprinkle with half of cheese and arrange tomatoes and prosciutto over pizza crust. Cover with remaining cheese and sprinkle garlic powder and black pepper.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with basil and avocado and more black pepper.

Cut into eight slices and drizzle with small amount of truffle oil.

Serve immediately with side salad.

Enjoy!