Basil and Tomato Squares Recipe | Quick Homemade Pizza Appetizer

Take mozzarella cheese, juicy tomatoes, savory herbs, and dough. What do you get? In this case, it ain’t pizza! Our Tomato Basil Squares recipe is one of the tastiest finger foods you’ll ever eat, and it’s easy to make. Bring this to a barbecue or picnic and watch it fly off the serving tray!

Tomato Basil Squares

You will need:

• 1 (12 oz.) pkg. refrigerated pizza dough
• 2 C. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 T. fresh chopped basil or 2 tsp dried basil
• 2/3 C. mayonnaise
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 4 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

Place 1 (12 oz. package refrigerated pizza dough on cookie sheet and spread into a square. Try the Rada Cookie Sheet, a stoneware sheet that doesn’t require seasoning, which you’ll need if using a metal pan. Add 1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese to dough square. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped basil, or 2 teaspoons dried basil. Then mince 1 clove garlic. The Rada French Chef knife is ideal for preparing the basil and garlic, as it allows you to easily smash and chop.

Into bowl place chopped basil, 2/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese. and minced garlic.

Mix well.

Thinly slice 4 plum tomatoes. The Rada Tomato Slicer is the world’s premier knife for slicing tomatoes into paper thin pieces.

Place sliced tomatoes evenly across pizza dough.

Place mixture on top of tomatoes. Mixture will be thick, so placing in patches is fine.

Place in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Remove from heat. Best if served warm. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Tomato Basil Squares

Our Tomato Basil Squares recipe is one of the tastiest finger foods you’ll ever eat, and it’s easy to make. Bring this to a barbecue or picnic and watch it fly off the serving tray!

Ingredients

• 1 (12 oz.) pkg. refrigerated pizza dough
• 2 C. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 T. fresh chopped basil or 2 tsp dried basil
• 2/3 C. mayonnaise
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 4 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  
• Place 1 (12 oz.) package refrigerated pizza dough on a greased cookie sheet and spread into a square.  Add 1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese to dough square.
• Chop 2 tablespoons fresh basil, or 2 teaspoons dried basil. Then mince 1 clove garlic.
  
• Into bowl place chopped basil, 2/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese. and minced garlic. Mix well.
• Thinly slice 4 plum tomatoes.
• Place sliced tomatoes evenly across pizza dough.
• Place mixture on top of tomatoes. Mixture will be thick, so placing in patches is fine.
• Place in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until topping is golden brown.
• Remove from heat. Best if served warm. Enjoy!

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The Tomato Slicer is available for home delivery at the online Rada Kitchen Store!

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Tomato Basil Squares Video Recipe

Tomato Basil Squares Video Transcript

Hi, Kristy in the Rada Kitchen, today I’m going to make the recipe for a finger food called Tomato Basil Squares. I got it out of our Picnics, Potlucks, and Barbeques recipe book. It’s really yummy and easy to make.

Now, on a 12 x 15 inch baking sheet I’ve unrolled a tube of refrigerated pizza dough crust. You want to leave about an inch along the edge. Now, this is the Rada Cookie Sheet so I didn’t have to season it. If you’re using a metal pan you’ll probably want to season it so it doesn’t stick. And to our crust we’re going to add a cup of mozzarella cheese. We’re just going to sprinkle it on the top of that. Meanwhile, have your oven preheating to 375 degrees.

Now, for this recipe you need two tablespoons of chopped fresh basil. And I just wanted to show you a neat way to cut that. You just roll it up and then you take a knife and it makes nice even strips. If you don’t have fresh basil you can also use two teaspoons of dried basil. But we have two tablespoons of the fresh. And then you’ll also need a clove of garlic. And I like to use the Rada French Chef knife. You can smash it and mince it all with the same knife.

Now, in your bowl where you add chopped basil, you’re going to add two thirds cup mayonnaise. A fourth cup of grated parmesean cheese and another cup of mozzarella cheese. We’re just going to blend that all together. And then we’re going to add our garlic that we minced. Then just make sure you mix that really well.

Now for our tomato basil squares you need four plum tomatoes. Slice them thin, and the best knife for that job is the Rada Tomato Slicer. It easily slices through that skin of a tomato. Does all the work for you, you can get them pretty much paper thin, so if you’re running short on tomatoes and want to make them stretch out for company, you need the Rada Tomato Slicer. This is our best-selling knife, right behind our Regular Paring knife.

So now we’re going to arrange our thinly sliced tomatoes over the crust that just has that one cup of mozzarella cheese on it yet. Then you take this to a potluck or barbeque, people go crazy over it, it looks like you spent a lot of time on it, but it really doesn’t take very long at all, and it tastes good, too.

Now we’re going to spread the mayonnaise mixture over that. This is really sticky, so I like to just take my fingers and just drop it over the top of those tomatoes. You’re not really going to be able to spread it on there. That smell of basil and garlic is so yummy.

Make sure you get to the corners. We’re going to pop this in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until topping is golden brown and bubbly. This is best served warm, and it’s a really yummy recipe it’s one of the finger foods from our cookbook titled Picnics, Potlucks, and Barbeques.

End of Video Transcript