Summer Pizzas

Homemade pizza is always good. With summer's plethora of fresh ingredients it could not be better. It might not be the first thing you want to make on a warm summer evening, but on a rainy night you might not mind turning on the oven, or you could cook it on top of the grill.

I recently made two thrilling pizza discoveries. The first is probably common knowledge, but I accidentally found that after the dough has been refrigerated for a few days, it becomes a chewier crust, akin to what comes out of the wood fired oven at our favorite pizza place. My other recent find was the combination of beets and goat cheese. With sweet crunch of the thinly sliced root with the tangy cream of the cheese, the nearly perfect crust almost doesn't matter.

On a rainy night last week, with dough ready and waiting, I threw together these pizzas. I brushed the crust of one with balsamic vinaigrette and topped it with mozzarella, goat cheese and thinly sliced beets. The other I covered with slow roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, I added fresh basil when it came out of the oven.

Make summer pizza! I made this crust recipe but used white whole wheat flour and refrigerated it for two days (it should be fine in the fridge for up to a week). The rest is up to you.