Categories
Italian Recipes Summer

Pesto, Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza

 

Posting two similar recipes in quick succession isn’t something that I’d usually indulge in, but time has been short recently and pizzas are awfully quick and simple to make; particularly when using pre-prepared dough. While on the subject of dough, a couple of you weren’t sure how the quality of it would be affected by being frozen for a few days. It seems that all fears of any dough-damage were entirely misplaced, as it produced a base of exactly the same quality. However, one must ensure that the dough has completely thawed before use. Indeed, I would suggest that one ought really to remove it from any chilled environment overnight before using it for pizza. Those of you who suggested that such an act would degrade the dough ought to feel ashamed. I wasn’t aware that faith in my instruction had waned quite that much!

In my last pizza post it was suggested that tomato-based pizzas aren’t necessarily worth blogging about since everyone knows how to make them. Clearly, I have remained steadfast in my convictions and have produced a delicious pesto-based specimen. As most of you will know, the flavours found atop this pizza are essentially the constituent parts of the classic caprese salad and this creation does a great job of showcasing the combination. One important thing to remember when making this pizza is not to over-do the amount of mozzarella; you’d be surprised at how much it can overwhelm a dish. It really is a case of less-is-more.

Now, as you know, I’m not much of an anecdotal blogger, but here’s a good one for you. Yesterday evening, five prime physical specimens and I took to the football pitch for a game of six-aside football. Unfortunately, my previous claim that all of us were prime physical specimens is easily refuted and we lost by a stunning margin. Indeed, when I tell you that our side got absolutely destroyed by a team which scored, on average, 1.04 goals per minute over a 26 minute match, you’ll soon work out that we lost 27-0. Now, I’m not unfit by any stretch of the imagination – I’ve just returned from circuits – but, we had no idea how to play against a more than competent side that had been going for six years; we had been playing together for 5 minutes. Anyway, I thought that anecdote would go rather well with this delicious pizza.

Pesto, Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 1 ball of dough, preferably homemade

• 2 tbsp basil pesto, see here for more info

• 6-7 cherry tomatoes, halved

• 60g mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C. Stretch the dough out into a pizza base and spread it with pesto.

2. Add the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella and bake for around 10-15 minutes, until golden and hard underneath. Enjoy with a salad, the one depicted is composed entirely of watercress.

Cost: As mentioned previously, the dough for this pizza should set one back around 15-20p, which is very cheap. However, due to the lack of mushrooms this pizza ought to come in a little under the last. Indeed, the entire creation should set one back no more than £1.30, which is an absolute steal!

99 replies on “Pesto, Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza”

Mmmm you’ve done it again, taken something I’ve eaten quite a lot before and produced an even better version! Your pizza base looks amazing and I love the cherry tomatoes instead of slices of tomatoes. Yum!

Gosh I love pesto on a pizza…and what I love even more than that is half cut cherry tomatoes & balls of mozzarella…sure reminds me of my time in europe! 🙂 Beautiful post…happy you posted another pizza one 🙂

I don’t think dough suffers at all from freezing. Plenty of people freeze it! Even restaurants. I agree with you: t’s one of those things that seems the same if you freeze it or not. Your pesto pizza looks delicious. Simple toppings are always the best, aren’t they?

And sorry you got annihilated on the football pitch. If it makes you feel better, I think 27-0 is an excellent lose for a team that had only been playing together for 5 minutes 😉

Your pizzas look great! By any remote chance do you have a gluten-free pizza crust that you like? I haven’t been so thrilled with the ones that I have made.

Don’t go out of your way. The ones that I have tried aren’t very good. I can do gluten-free baked goods, I just can’t get a pizza crust recipe right.

Thanks for the tips about freezing the dough. I think my previous problem with frozen pizza dough was that I didn’t let it get warm enough before baking. I did completely thaw it, but it was still kind of cold when I cooked it, hence the problems with sogginess. I’ll have to try it again!

I love pesto! I actually made this same pizza the other day but I roasted the cherry tomatoes for about an hour before adding them to the pizza. Yum! 🙂

Love homemade pizzas! My husband used to be adamant about making the dough himself, but we recently discovered a local market that sells excellent fresh dough. Last weekend we had another family over for dinner and everyone made their own pizza… so much fun!

I love the look of that pizza, both raw and cooked, such zingy colours, somehow you just KNOW it’s going to taste good.

Someone has just recommended to me a pizza dough made with simply 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of yogurt, sounds like it would be billowy ight, I have to give it a go, and now I’ll be using this topping.

Sue xx

I’ve never thought of putting a caprese topping on a pizza but, truly, it is a magnificent idea (I keep repeating the mistake of ‘too much mozzarella’ because there’s a little voice in my head saying ‘Julsy, you can NEVER have too much cheese’. Yes, yes you can.)

I love this!! Who cares about the score.. you’ve got this pizza! “Winning”!! I know a friend gave me frozen pizza dough before and I’m embarrassed to admit I never used it.. because I didn’t know how to thaw it out.. Had I read this post… but I didn’t know you back then.. 😀 ps I betcha coulda beat those guys if you played after eating the pizza!!!

I’m so glad to know that about frozen pizza dough and thinks it more than warrants two posts in quick succession on a similar topic.

I for one always end up with left over dough and often tossing being unsure about the freezing. I am now the wiser 🙂 maybe you should offer these tips to your opposing footy team and distract them in to submission.

Seriously, there is no reason not to make your own pizza! Calorie and taste-wise always a better deal! I do not think two pizza recipes so close are any odder than 2 soups, salads or sandwiches. We are so conditioned by the pizza parlor to think they are a special occasion meal! Frugal to me means re-inventing how I think of food! Another great post! Due to current restrictions I can not eat all these but I can enjoy or make them for DH…

[…] The second recipe was another attempt at cooking. PIZZA! In fact a pesto based one with sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese. I can’t say I was completely satisfied with the dough. But the fault was probably mine. It’s never a good idea to make pizza without a kitchen scale, using any kind of yeast, and being impatient with rising. I can’t say it turned out too bad considering all of the mistakes I probably made. The recipe was adapted from frugal feeding. http://frugalfeeding.com/2012/07/05/pesto-tomato-and-mozzarella-pizza/ […]

If you like my recipes, photos or food please leave a comment here...