Pesto Pizza

Let me start out by saying that this is the most intricate pizza that I will probably ever make.  There are much more ingredients than my usual sauce/cheese/basil/tomato pizza, but most of them I already had. I originally had plans for this pizza to be completely vegan after I saw how beautiful this pizza turned out on Oh She Glows.  However, my hopes of staying true to the veganness of this pizza were quickly dashed!  I was unable to find nutritional yeast to add a cheesey flavor to the pizza, so I felt obligated to add some fresh mozz, and Alex of course felt like it was necessary to add his daily 12954 oz of meat on his side.  I found this pizza incredibly satisfying and ridiculously shove-in-face-until-you-realize-you-should-have-stopped-two-pieces-ago worthy.  I don't even like onions on my pizza, but I found myself enjoying each and every soft and somewhat crunchy onion on my half of the pizza. Alex had strong objections to me spreading out the onion/tomato mixture on his half of the pizza (as if a mature flavor would ruin his taste buds or something) and ended up picking the onions off, so I probably will only make this in the future for myself.  However, I do think that this pizza dough will be my go-to recipe for when I'm making a pizza for the two of us since Alex despises my all-time favorite dough.  We ended up dunking our pizza crust in heated pizza sauce, which has me thinking that I'm going to use this recipe for bread sticks. Pizza rating 8.5/10.   Dough rating 9/10.

Chicken and cheese contaminating what once was completely vegan

Recipe adapted from Oh She Glows

Pizza dough- prepare at least two hours before you bake your pizza

1 cup unbleached bread flour +3/4 cup

1 packet of pizza yeast (2 1/4 tsp) or regular yeast

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp white sugar

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup very warm water

Combine the 1 cup flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and herbs in a bowl.  

Add in the water and oil and combine thoroughly.  

Gradually combine the remaining 3/4 cup of flour.

Knead the dough for about five minutes and set aside in a covered (not air-tight) bowl for 1 1/2-2 hours.

While the dough is rising get started on your veggie topping!

Veggie topping ingredients

approximately 1 1/2 cups chopped tomato

1 large red onion- diced

4 basil leaves- finely shredded

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 garlic cloves- minced

Preheat oven to 375

Combine the garlic, vinegar, and olive oil.  

Mix the veggies with the sauce and spread on a tin-foiled pan.

Bake for about 35 minutes.

The veggies should be used within an hour.

Oil spread

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic- minced

In a small saucepan heat the olive oil and garlic over low until the garlic becomes fragrant- about 4 minutes.

Pesto

About 1/2 to 1 cup of any homemade or store-bought pesto will do.

Assemble your pizza in this order

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone inside.

Toss the pizza into desired size and place it on a cornmeal coated pizza peel/flexible cutting board/back of cookie sheet/parchment paper.

Coat the entire top surface of the pizza with the garlicy olive oil.

Spread a nice layer of pesto over the toppings-designated area.

Distribute the veggie mixture over the pesto.

Top with cheese/ cooked chicken if desired.

Place the pizza on the preheated pizza stone or on the back of a unheated cookie sheet and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Oh Show Glows contains a gluten-free "Parmesan cheese" if you are interested/can find nutritional yeast!

Check out my new fiestaware!  (It's lead free, made in the USA, and reasonably priced on Amazon)