Tomato-Basil Pizza

Well, let me tell you something if you don't already know it...that Pioneer Woman really knows what she is talking about!  I am in proud possession of her cookbook, and so far every recipe that I have tried from it has been a hit!  We had my sister-in-law and her boyfriend over for dinner Saturday night, and I made this pizza recipe, which everyone loved.  My husband declared it my most professional pizza yet!  He is quite a pizza connoisseur, so that is high praise from him.  Since I followed the recipe as it is, I'll just give you this link to it -- the step-by-step photos are great.  I followed the recipe with the pesto, not the fresh basil leaves (only the pesto version made it to the book).  This recipe is terribly easy and terribly tasty, which is pretty much what I look for when we entertain!  I will 'fess up to using store-bought pesto.  I buy this little jar from Classico  for about $2.50 (in the tomato sauce section) which is much cheaper for us than buying all the basil and the pine nuts that I'd need for homemade pesto!  Perhaps some day I will grow basil and manage not to kill it long enough to make pesto!  But for now, well, let's just say that if plants could run when they saw me coming, they would. 

By the way -- I also used the Pioneer Woman's recipe for pizza dough, which I was thrilled with.  Plus, the recipe yields enough for two pizzas, which means I now have homemade ready-made dough in my freezer!  Tell you the truth, it was just as easy as picking up pizza dough at the store...especially since my husband cleaned out the mixer bowl!