Italialicious

I love picnicking, and since I’m spending some nice days south of the border we went to French Creek State Park, PA to have an Italian picnic! The place is really nice, and it's not that far from Philadelphia. There are two lakes, and you can go fishing or trekking in the various trails they have. And to get there you drive along a quaint countryside route! For my picnic I baked multiple things. In fact, when I go picnicking I usually bake a lot, so in the end it’s a bit of a carbs-and-starch picnic. But, imagine those carbs together with prosciutto, cheese, salame and tomatoes! I love tomatoes. It is spring now and tomatoes are beginning to taste just great! So one of the things I baked was my tomato pizza pie. It is super-simple and so yummy! And perfect for an Italian picnic!

Ingredients
Half of the recipe of Neapolitan pizza doughRipe tomatoes
1 garlic clove, minced
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Salt, pepper

Roll out the pizza dough shaping a flat disk. Transfer the dough onto a pie mold. Fill the pie with thick slices of tomatoes. If you’re using Roma tomatoes, 5 or 6 will do (discard the seeds of the tomatoes). Then season with salt, olive oil and herbes de Provence. If you don’t have herbes de Provence simply use what you have: rosemary, thyme, dried basil leaves, even oregano (but remember that using oregano is not as Italian as people usually believe. Not that herbes de Provence are Italian – they are French – but they have more of the Mediterranean Italian flavor than oregano, which has more of a Greek appeal to me). Fold the dough borders giving the pie a rustic look. Brush the borders with some olive oil, and bake in a preheated 400F oven for about 25 minutes until nice and golden brown.

You can serve my luscious tomato pizza pie hot, warm or even cold. So it’s very versatile and terrific for a picnic. Add a touch of fruity olive oil just before eating!