Vegetable Pizza

Note from Mitch: This is my flagship pizza. The 'ol standby that everyone loves. Instead of using the traditional tomato sauce, the pizza dough is brushed with garlic oil. Below is a list of veggies I like to use, but feel free to use any vegetables you like. It's your pizza. Whatever vegetables you decide to use, don't pile them on too high as the cheese will not melt underneath and all the liquid from the veggies will make your pizza soggy. Yes, the picture below is only half mushrooms. This way, you can please more of the people most of the time.

1 Recipe Basic Pizza Dough 8 oz. grated mozzarella cheese 1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese 5 fresh Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced 1/2 large onion, thinly sliced 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced 10 to 15 mushrooms, thinly sliced 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed 5 or 6 large fresh basil leaves 1/3 cup olive oil

Serves 3-4 Preheat oven to 400° F. Mince or press the garlic and place in olive oil and let stand at least an hour. Take tomatoes, onion, green pepper and mushrooms and slice into 1/8 inch slices, set aside. Chop the basil and set aside. Assembly This should be done quickly as the pizza may have a chance to stick to your peel before sliding into your oven. Roll out the dough. Brush dough with the garlic oil mixture. Don't be shy! Allow the garlic from the oil to be evenly spread all over the dough. Save some of the oil for later. Sprinkle the cheese on the pizza leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edge. Sprinkle basil evenly over cheese. Now come the veggies. As with all the items before, place them evenly on the pizza. You don't want any slices missing something. Start with the tomatos, then the onion and green pepper and finally the mushrooms. Bake pizza for about 15 minutes or until the crust is a light brown. Be sure to take a look every 5 minutes or so as every oven cooks a little differently. Transfer the cooked pizza to a cooling rack and brush the edges with some of the left over oil. Sprinkle on the parmesan cheese. Let the pizza cool for about 10 minutes. You may want to tilt the pizza up a little during the cooling process so any liquid form the veggies will spill off. This keeps it from getting soggy. Be sure to have something under the pizza to sop up the dripping liquid. Or, you can do as I do and let the liquid drip into the sink. Slice it up and enjoy!