Provonetta Pizza

One of the highlights of our gourmet group dinner that we hosted last Sunday was this simple and tasty recipe for this Provonetta Pizza which was served as an appetizer.

I wanted to assign a fairly easy appetizer to one of the couples in our group as they are in the process of trying to change homes and are living in an apartment temporarily with a small kitchen so many of their kitchen supplies and equipment are in storage.

I found the recipe on the Eat Wisconsin Cheese website and it's delicious.  It calls for store-bought pizza dough (which tasted amazingly good!)...My friend chose the most common kind, Pillsbury. I'm certain a home made crust would make this even more exceptional.

Fresh tomatoes and basil made this similar to a Pizza Margherita but with different cheese and the addition of the toasted pine nuts gave each bite a wonderful crunch.  The freshly ground pepper also gave the flavors a nice boost. 

Everyone loved this recipe and it would make a delicious meatless dinner too!

Provonetta Pizza
Adapted from Eat Wisconsin Cheese
Printable Recipe

Serves 6 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 12-inch purchased pizza crust, par baked according to package directions
4-5 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced horizontally
2 cups (8 ounces) Provolone cheese, shredded
1/4 cup (1 ounce) Parmesan Cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
Black pepper to taste

Cooking Directions:

Preheat oven to 385°F. Combine garlic and olive oil and spread over crust. Arrange evenly in order – tomato slices, Provolone Cheese, Parmesan Cheese, basil, pine nuts and pepper. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cheese is lightly brown. Pizza also can be made with flat bread crust.