Pesto Pizza

You may have noticed our blog dressed for summer, with simple, impressive, colorful and very, very tasty recipes. I'm determined to bring you dishes that let you enjoy the good weather with your loved ones, and that make you lick your lips at how good they are. Recipes with an unbeatable balance between preparation time and enjoyment, because I don't want you to miss a single dip in the pool. Neither you, nor me!

The queen of this kind of recipe, with the salad's permission, is undoubtedly pizza. One of its biggest advantages is that everyone likes it (I still don't know anyone who says "no" to pizza for dinner) and that it accepts practically any type of ingredient. Whether cheese, vegetable, fish or meat, not a crumb will be left.

Today's will be no exception. The pesto pizza is tasty, aromatic and, of course!, very summery, although 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 nicely crispy, and we'll accompany it with some cherry tomatoes and a good amount of mozzarella. The pesto gives it the perfect touch, flooding the whole pizza with its flavor and aroma.

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

Let's get to the recipe!

Emile Henry smooth ceramic pizza tray

Ingredients

For the pizza dough*

• 200 g wheat flour
• 5 g salt
• 5 g extra-fine 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 the sauce you prefer on your pizza:

1) Pesto sauce*

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

*As with the pizza dough, you can buy the pesto, but making it is so simple it won't take you long. Plus, you can always adjust it to your taste.

2) Green sauce

• 20 g parsley (only 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 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• 10 cl olive oil
• 1 pinch 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'll need to prepare first. To do this, mix the flour with the salt, sugar and yeast.
2. Pour the warm water (about 40 °C) and the olive oil. Mix until combined, work it well until you obtain a smooth dough and shape it into a ball.
3. Flour the ceramic pizza tray, spread the dough directly on it with a rolling pin or with your hand, helping yourself 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 they are golden and let them cool. You can also do this in a pan, stirring constantly, but if you do it in the oven they'll be ready when you go to bake the pizza.
2. Peel the garlic and put it in the Ingenio hand chopper by Tefal and blend for about 5 seconds.
3. Add the basil and the garlic to the chopper and blend for 3 more seconds.
4. Place the rest of the ingredients in the chopper and mix 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 incorporating the olive oil so it emulsifies properly.
3. Add salt and pepper at the end.

Assembly and baking

1. If you toasted the pine nuts in the oven to make the pesto, don't turn it off; raise the temperature to 240 °C so it's nice and hot when baking the pizza. If not, preheat it to 240 °C.
2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place them on the dough upside down, with the rounded side up.
3. Add the mozzarella cut into slices so that it covers the entire dough.
4. With a spoon distribute the pesto sauce over the pizza (you can use a squeeze bottle or also a piping bag). If you 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 a pizza cutter and wait for it to cool slightly before enjoying. Enjoy your meal!

Notes:

• To make the dough crispier, you can sprinkle fine semolina of durum wheat on the ceramic tray before baking.
• If you want to give it a more aromatic touch, sprinkle very finely chopped rosemary just after taking the pizza out of the oven.
• Whichever sauce you choose for your pizza, spread it generously. If you have leftovers, you can store it in the fridge in an airtight jar or you can portion it into the ice cube tray and freeze it, so you'll have it ready to use little by little when you need it.