pesto pizza

You will have seen that we have the summer dress blog, with simple, successful, colorful and very, very tasty recipes . I am determined to bring you dishes that allow you to enjoy the good weather in the company of your loved ones, and that make you smack-mouth how good they are. Recipes with an unbeatable relationship between preparation time and enjoyment, because I don't want you to miss a dip in the pool. Not you, not me!

The queen of this type of recipe, with the permission of the salad, is undoubtedly pizza. Among its greatest advantages are the fact that everyone likes it (I still don't know anyone who has a "no" to a pizza for dinner) and that it admits practically any type of ingredient . Whether it's cheese, vegetables, fish or meat, there won't be a crumb left.

Today's will be no exception. The pesto pizza is tasty, aromatic and, of course, very summery, although after trying it once you will want to enjoy it all year round. The dough, baked in the Emile Henry ceramic pizza tray , will be very crunchy, and we will accompany it with some cherry tomatoes and a good amount of mozzarella . The pesto gives it the perfect touch, flooding the entire pizza with its flavor and aroma.

And so that you can play with different flavors, the pesto pizza that I bring you in this post comes with a gift: the recipe for a very fresh green sauce that is an ideal alternative to season this pizza when you want to change the pesto for another flavor.

Let's go with the recipe!

Smooth ceramic tray for pizza Emile Henry

Ingredients

For the pizza dough*

• 200 g of wheat flour
• 5g of salt
• 5 g caster sugar
• 5 g dry baker's yeast
• 10cl of lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

*If you buy the dough, you can skip the first step of the recipe, but it is so easily prepared (almost, almost alone) that it is worth making it at home.

Choose the sauce you prefer on your pizza:

1) Pesto sauce*

• 50g basil
• 1 clove garlic
• 30 g grated Parmesan cheese
• 30g of pine nuts
• 175 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

*In the same way as with the pizza dough, you can buy the pesto, but doing it is so simple that it will not take you long. In addition, you can always adjust it to your liking.

2) Green sauce

• 20g parsley (just the leaves, about 1 handful)
• 10 g basil (only the leaves)
• A few fresh oregano leaves
• 2-3 fresh mint leaves (optional)
• 1 tbsp capers
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• 10cl of olive oil
• 1 pinch of sugar
• Fine salt and ground pepper to taste

For the filling, in addition to the sauce:

• 150g cherry tomatoes
• 150 g of mozzarella

Elaboration

For the pizza dough

1. This is what we will have to prepare first. To do this, mix the flour with the salt, sugar and yeast.
2. Pour in the lukewarm water (about 40°C) and the olive oil. Mix until integrated, work it well until you get a smooth dough and form a ball.
3. Flour the ceramic pizza tray , spread the dough directly on it with a rolling pin or with your hand, helping you with your fingers, and let it rise for about 15 minutes.

for the sauce

1) If you choose pesto sauce:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and toast the pine nuts on a tray for 10 minutes until golden brown and let them cool. You can also do it in a frying pan, stirring constantly, but if you do it in the oven you will have it ready when you go to bake the pizza.
2. Peel the garlic and put it in the Tefal Ingenio manual mincer and grind for about 5 seconds.
3. Add the basil and garlic in the chopper and grind for 3 more seconds.
4. Place the rest of the ingredients in the chopper and mix them for about 10 seconds.
5. Season to taste and reserve to add to the pizza.

2) If you choose the green sauce:

1. Chop the parsley, basil, fresh oregano, and mint leaves.
2. Add the garlic, capers and lemon juice and mix well, gradually adding the olive oil so that it emulsifies properly.
3. Add salt and pepper at the end.

assembly and cooking

1. If you've toasted the pine nuts in the oven to make the pesto sauce, don't turn it off; raise the temperature to 240 °C so that it is piping hot when baking the pizza. If not, preheat it to 240°C.
2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and arrange them face down on the dough, with the rounded part facing up.
3. Add the mozzarella cut into slices, so that it covers the entire dough.
4. With a spoon, spread the pesto sauce over the pizza (you can use a bottle or a pastry bag). If you have opted for the green sauce, do exactly the same.
5. Place the Emile Henry Smooth Ceramic Pizza Tray in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove it from the oven, cut it on the same tray with the pizza cutter and wait for it to warm up a bit to enjoy it. Enjoy!

Grades:

• To make the dough crunchier, you can sprinkle fine durum wheat semolina on the ceramic tray before baking.
• If you want to give it a more aromatic touch, sprinkle very finely chopped rosemary right when you take the pizza out of the oven.
• Whatever sauce you choose for your pizza, spread it generously. In case you have left over, you can keep it in the fridge in an airtight jar or you can distribute it in the ice bucket and freeze it, so you will have it ready to consume little by little when you need it.