Meatball margarita pizza

Here’s a good reason to start hunting for a good Italian deli in your area–meatballs. Of course, fresh pizza dough, mozzarella, homemade sausage and pasta make the list too, but when I want a quick meal, I’ll often pick up meatballs and sauce at Alesci’s then all I have to do when I come home is make the pasta.

But meatballs have so many possibilities–why not as a pizza topping? I merged two of my kids’ favorite Italian meals–meatballs and margarita pizza for these mini-meals.

Recipe

Prep time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4 mini-pizzas

Ingredients

1 bag pizza dough

1 1/2 cups marinara or pizza sauce

1 bunch basil

8-12 ounces fresh mozzarella

12 meatballs*

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Divided the dough into four equal pieces using a floured knife.
3. Roll each dough piece out into a 5-6 inch circle, then place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.
4. Slather each pizza with sauce.
5. Place three meatballs, mozzarella, and fresh ground pepper on top.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, remove pizza and add basil then cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until cheese is golden. (You can leave the basil on the whole time if you don’t mind it getting a little crispy. I actually like the basil crisped so I put it on at the beginning of cooking, it’s up to you!)

*Tweak this mini-meatloaf recipe to make your own meatballs. Cut out the mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, tabasco and add plenty of torn fresh basil and dried oregano instead.

Coming up later this week:

• Breakfast pizza failure
• Apple Gruyere pizza (a new favorite)