Pizza Bovanese

I hmm'd and haaa'd alot about sharing this one with the world.  Truth be told - this pizza is like my childhood all wrapped up into one dish.  Anyone on my Dad's side of the family is familiar with this pizza since we all grew up on it.  It's a very special recipe and the most important ingredient without a doubt is love - so cheese - but true.  Back in uni I used to make batches of it and stash it in the fridge to nibble at for days at a time.  However - I never could figure out how it disappeared so quickly.  That is, until my roommates (post graduation obviously) told me that they used to sneak into my pizza stash after I went to sleep at night and hoard it for themselves - ever so carefully unwrapping the tin foil like sneaky little gremlins - and devouring my za' as a post bar snack. 

After they told me and the initial shot of pizza thieving rage passed through my body - I decided to let it go.  Mainly because Belle, I used your milk for cereal almost every day and lied about it...oh and your peanut butter.  Mellag, your labeled whole wheat pasta ended up in my belly on more than one occasion, and Lala,  I used your olive oil everyday - literally.

Ahhh... that feels better.

Moving on to the famous family pizza bovanese.  It is SO easy to make - it tastes even better cold - and is a perfect dish for anything.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizer, hor'derve.  Love it.

Ingredients
1 ball of white dough (found in the bakery section of your local grocer)
10 plum tomatoes (seeded) and chopped into 1 inch, mixed shaped pieces (note - you want to cut the tomatoes in half first, remove the seeds and some of the flesh, and then cut the rest of the tomato with each piece containing some skin)
1/4 cup fresh oregano (leaves only, chopped)
7 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
1/3 cup EVOO, plus more for drizzle
Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Begin by rolling out your dough into an even sheet.  On a large baking pan (don't use a non-stick pan or the bottom will not brown), drizzle some EVOO down and spread it around the pan in a thin layer - making sure not to miss any spots or the dough will stick.  Spread out the dough covering the whole pan.  Take your tomatoes and squish them into the pizza SKIN SIDE UP.  Cover the entire pizza with tomatoes - there should be barely any dough showing through.  Sprinkle your oregano, garlic and olive oil evenly all over the pizza and then - with a generous hand- salt the entire pizza.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the bottom is lightly brown (lift up and check).

Cut into square pieces - serve & enjoy!

From my Family to yours.

xo Chef Natty