Flatbread Pizza with Fresh Basil

I was over at Olga's Home & Garden Blog earlier today where she was showing a beautiful basil plant she had purchased and mentioned how it was so fragrant, giving her a pizza craving. It sounded soooo good, and ironically when my husband came home from work tonight he suggested that we make up a quick flatbread pizza for dinner before he had to leave again for a meeting.

There are several flatbreads that we like.....tonight we are going with Joseph's (our favorite) made with whole wheat.

We usually already have ingredients on hand.......

Contadina squeeze sauce makes it quick and easy. Just use what you need and refrigerate the rest. No half used big jar of leftover sauce that may get tossed later.

There's always the question about the cheese.....does it go on under the toppings or over top? So I scatter a little shredded mozzarella over the sauce and then add provolone later, or a blend.

Tonight we're adding some torn deli chicken (sorry Olga I think you're vegetarian).

Sliced fresh tomato and mushrooms....the thinner the better so as not to make the crust soggy...my goal is for paper thin slices.

Then fresh basil leaves give it such a great flavor!

Slices of provolone and a sprinkling of parmesan from the shaker. A dash of dried oregano, I don't have any fresh oregano tonight.

Dab on a little good olive oil with a pastry brush (oops I forgot to snap a pic of the oil, but it really is an important ingredient, a little goes a long way in the way of flavor and remember you don't want to make the crust soggy.)

And it's ready to pop into the oven. Just a few minutes at 400 degrees to heat through and melt the cheese really is all it takes as long as there is no raw meat.

And really the key is to keep the toppings to a minimum since this is a flatbread, you want to keep the toppings in balance with the bread/crust. You don't want it to be all toppings (it's easy to go overboard and pile on the toppings--I may have gotten a little carried away with this one). You want to taste the crust too.

To have it bake up as crispy as possible, lay it right on the oven rack and place a foil underneath to catch any drips. Many times upon removing from the oven I crisp up the bottom by transferring the whole thing right onto a hot pancake griddle and cook on a high or med/high heat on the stovetop.

Here's the before.......

Here's the After.......
MMMmmmm.........HOT from the oven, fresh ingredients, goey melted cheese, bubbly, just begining to brown, crust crispy and crunchy around the edge.........

Is your mouth watering yet? Take a closer look..........