Pesto Pizza
One of Dave's coworkers gave him a one gallon bag of basil. We had caprese salad the other night and tonight it was PESTO PIZZA! I couldn't find a recipe I liked so I made one up and it was AMAZING. So I thought I'd share =-]
Pesto
1 1/2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (that kraft stuff works great!)
1/4 cup of toasted almonds
3 cloves of garlic
pinch of red pepper flakes
dash of nutmeg
ground black pepper to taste
Pesto can be made with walnuts, almonds, or traditionally pinenuts. But pinenuts are so damned expensive so I opted for almonds. I bought the presliced ones and toasted them at 450 degrees for about ten minutes or until they look 'toasted.' The result was a really nutty flavor, but oh was it tastey! I liked it way better than the pinenut variety and I totally dig pinenuts.
Ok, so toast your almonds and then throw everything in a food processor until it looks like pesto. I added just a tad more olive oil because i wanted it to be easy to spread on the pizza dough.
Pizza Dough
1 packet of dry active yeast (1/4 oz)
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 teaspoons of white sugar
Mix the warm water and yeast until it dissolves and let it do it's magical thing for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, put the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. When the yeast is ready pour it in a mix that shit up! Ok, I have a really awesome kitchenaid attachment for this, and also a breadmaker, but it was way more fun to do it by hand. So after the dough gets kinda tough, oil the bottom of the bowl, put the dough in, and throw a towel over it. The room temp should be between 70-80 to get a rise, so i put it in the closet with the dryer running. In thirty minutes it was doubled in size. Shazaam! You have pizza dough.
But I'm kind of an over achiever so I punched that dough right in the face and then let it rise a second time. This step is optional. The end result was kind of a pan pizza crust. Not too chewy and not too crispy. Juuuust right. Goldylocks would be pleased.
Pizza
Dough
Pesto
Fresh ball of mozz
Tomato
Pepperoni
You can be all fancy and ridiculous like me and try to hand toss your pizza but in the end you might have to pull out the french roller and do it the lame way. I put some flax seed down on the pizza stone to keep it from sticking (and for added nutrition!). Put your dough down, smear on the pesto, then add some fresh mozz, a sliced tomato, maybe some pepperoni if that's your thing. Put it in the oven at 350 F for 25 minutes and PESTO CHANGO you have the most delicious pesto pizza ever!!
Pesto
1 1/2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (that kraft stuff works great!)
1/4 cup of toasted almonds
3 cloves of garlic
pinch of red pepper flakes
dash of nutmeg
ground black pepper to taste
Pesto can be made with walnuts, almonds, or traditionally pinenuts. But pinenuts are so damned expensive so I opted for almonds. I bought the presliced ones and toasted them at 450 degrees for about ten minutes or until they look 'toasted.' The result was a really nutty flavor, but oh was it tastey! I liked it way better than the pinenut variety and I totally dig pinenuts.
Ok, so toast your almonds and then throw everything in a food processor until it looks like pesto. I added just a tad more olive oil because i wanted it to be easy to spread on the pizza dough.
Pizza Dough
1 packet of dry active yeast (1/4 oz)
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 teaspoons of white sugar
Mix the warm water and yeast until it dissolves and let it do it's magical thing for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, put the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. When the yeast is ready pour it in a mix that shit up! Ok, I have a really awesome kitchenaid attachment for this, and also a breadmaker, but it was way more fun to do it by hand. So after the dough gets kinda tough, oil the bottom of the bowl, put the dough in, and throw a towel over it. The room temp should be between 70-80 to get a rise, so i put it in the closet with the dryer running. In thirty minutes it was doubled in size. Shazaam! You have pizza dough.
But I'm kind of an over achiever so I punched that dough right in the face and then let it rise a second time. This step is optional. The end result was kind of a pan pizza crust. Not too chewy and not too crispy. Juuuust right. Goldylocks would be pleased.
Pizza
Dough
Pesto
Fresh ball of mozz
Tomato
Pepperoni
You can be all fancy and ridiculous like me and try to hand toss your pizza but in the end you might have to pull out the french roller and do it the lame way. I put some flax seed down on the pizza stone to keep it from sticking (and for added nutrition!). Put your dough down, smear on the pesto, then add some fresh mozz, a sliced tomato, maybe some pepperoni if that's your thing. Put it in the oven at 350 F for 25 minutes and PESTO CHANGO you have the most delicious pesto pizza ever!!