Valentine Heart Pizza

Note: The crust recipe makes two pizzas and the filling amounts listed above top only one. So you can save the other half of the dough for later, or double the topping amounts above and make them both at the same time. Make the pizza dough ahead—it’s best when refrigerated for at least 24 hours prior to use.

For the crust:

Add warm (not lukewarm) water to a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Next, add the yeast to the water and set aside.

Add the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. With the mixer on low speed (using a hook attachment), add the olive oil into the flour mixture and mix to combine. Pour the water mixture in and mix just until the dough is formed.

Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a separate mixing bowl with olive oil.

Form the dough into a ball and toss it in the bowl to coat all sides of the dough with the olive oil.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until needed. It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours ahead of time, and 3 or 4 days in advance is even better.

For the pizza:
Use ½ of the dough from the recipe above. So before you start, split the batch of dough in two equal sized pieces.

Preheat oven to 500 F.

Drizzle some olive oil onto a large pizza pan.

Work the piece of dough with your hands to form a small flat circle. Continue to work the dough until it’s about the size of a paper plate.

Then lay the dough on top of the olive oil on the pizza pan and shape it into a large heart shape.

Spread the tomato sauce on the dough starting about 1 inch from the outside edge of the dough. (Don’t spread the sauce up to the very edge of the dough. Leave about an inch of space for the crust).

Next, add the cut tomatoes on top of the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle the garlic powder, pepper, oregano, and basil on top of the tomatoes and sauce.

Add the mozzarella cheese.

Then tear the ham and Swiss cheese into medium to large size pieces and add on top of the mozarrella.

Remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and add the leaves on top of the pizza.

Sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese over the top of the pizza.

Top with the chopped basil.

Bake in preheated oven until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown (about 10 minutes).

Serve hot right out of the oven.

*Pizza Crust recipe is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks “My-Favorite-Pizza-Recipe”.