Ranch Veggie Pizza

Sometimes I enjoy a change from traditional tomato-sauce, pepperoni and cheese pizza. Don't you? So I used the idea of an olive-oil "sauce" with veggies as the toppings. The end result was delicious! Charles, my traditional pizza guy, even commented that he'd love to have this one more often.

Here's what you need:

1 pizza dough recipe
3 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP ranch dressing mix
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 green, red or yellow pepper, thinly sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Mix up a batch of your favorite pizza dough. You can use thawed frozen bread dough or even a pre-made store bought crust.

Combine the olive oil and ranch mix. Allow this to sit for several minutes so the oil gets infused with the ranch flavors. I actually do this before I start mixing my pizza dough.

Stretch the dough onto a greased pan. I like to use a rectangular cookie sheet instead of a round one for this pizza. I don't know why. Prick the crust several times with a fork. Bake at 425 degrees for 7-8 minutes.

Brush the olive oil mixture on the crust. Layer the toppings with tomato slices on top. Tomatoes have a lot of moisture and if they're right on top of the crust, your crust might get soggy. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.

This pizza is so yummy! Without the heavy tomato sauce, it crisps up nicely. You can add mushrooms or other veggies to suit your family's tastes.