Pesto Pizza

You will have seen that we have dressed the blog for summer, with easy, impressive, colorful, and very, very tasty recipes. I’m determined to bring you dishes that let you enjoy the good weather in the company of your loved ones, and that make you lick your lips at how good they are. Recipes with an unbeatable ratio between prep time and the time you spend enjoying them, because I don’t want you to miss even one dip in the pool. Not you, and not me!

The queen of this type of recipe, with the salad as a close second, is undoubtedly pizza. Among its biggest advantages is that it is loved by everyone (I still haven’t met anyone who says no to pizza for dinner) and that it can take practically any kind of ingredient. Whether it’s cheese, vegetables, fish, or meat, not a crumb will be left.

Today’s recipe is no exception. Pesto pizza is tasty, aromatic, and, of course, very summery, though once you try it you’ll want to enjoy it all year round. The dough, baked on the Emile Henry ceramic pizza tray, will turn out nice and crisp, and we’ll top it with some cherry tomatoes and a good amount of mozzarella. The pesto gives it the perfect touch, filling the whole pizza with its flavor and aroma.

And so you can play with different flavors, the pesto pizza I’m bringing you in this post comes with a gift: the recipe for a very fresh green sauce that makes an ideal alternative for dressing this pizza when you want to swap the pesto for another flavor.

Let’s get to the recipe!

Smooth ceramic pizza tray by Emile Henry

Ingredients

For the pizza dough*

• 200 g wheat flour
• 5 g salt
• 5 g superfine sugar
• 5 g dry baker's yeast
• 10 cl warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil

*If you buy the dough, you can skip the first step of the recipe, but it’s so easy to make (almost by itself) that it’s worth making it at home.

Choose your preferred sauce for your pizza:

1) Pesto sauce*

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

*Just like with the pizza dough, you can buy the pesto, but making it is so easy it will take no time at all. Plus, you can always adjust it to your taste.

2) Green sauce

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

For the topping, in addition to the sauce:

• 150 g cherry tomatoes
• 150 g mozzarella

Preparation

For the pizza dough

1. This is what we need to prepare first. To do so, mix the flour with the salt, sugar, and yeast.
2. Pour in the warm water (about 40 °C) and the olive oil. Mix until combined, knead well until you have a smooth dough, and shape it into a ball.
3. Flour the Emile Henry ceramic pizza tray, roll out the dough directly on it with a rolling pin or by hand, using 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, then let them cool. You can also do this in a skillet, stirring constantly, but if you do it in the oven, they’ll be ready when it’s time to bake the pizza.
2. Peel the garlic and place it in the Tefal Ingenio manual chopper and blend for about 5 seconds.
3. Add the basil and garlic to the chopper and blend for 3 more seconds.
4. Put the rest of the ingredients in the chopper and mix them for about 10 seconds.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside 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 everything well, gradually adding the olive oil so it emulsifies properly.
3. Add the salt and pepper at the end.

Assembly and baking

1. If you toasted the pine nuts in the oven to make the pesto sauce, don’t turn it off; raise the temperature to 240 °C so it’s nice and hot when you bake the pizza. If not, preheat it to 240 °C.
2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place them on top of the dough, cut side down, with the rounded side facing up.
3. Add the mozzarella, sliced, so it covers the whole dough.
4. Using a spoon, spread the pesto sauce over the pizza (you can use a squeeze bottle or a piping bag too). If you chose the green sauce, do exactly the same.
5. Place the Smooth ceramic pizza tray by Emile Henry in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove it from the oven, cut it on the tray itself with the pizza cutter, and wait for it to cool slightly before enjoying it. Enjoy!

Notes:

• To make the dough crispier, you can sprinkle fine durum wheat semolina on the ceramic tray before baking.
• If you want to add a more aromatic touch, sprinkle very finely chopped rosemary just as you take the pizza out of the oven.
• Whichever sauce you choose for your pizza, spread it generously. If you have any left over, you can keep it in the fridge in an airtight container or you can portion it into the ice cube tray and freeze it, so you’ll have it ready to use little by little whenever you need it.