February 15, 2009 - 10:50am
Pesto Pizza
This has become a regular around here. Pesto Pizza:
I use Peter Reinhart's pizza crust, Costco's pesto (which is actually quite good), frozen shrimp or chicken, and parmesan cheese. The kids love it, we love it, and it is quick and easy, easy enough to do on a work night (or Valentine's, which is when this was from).
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I keep telling myself I need to try more pizza crusts, but when they come out this good, it's hard.
As to jarred pesto - I say go for it. Most of the time, it's one of those things where the value is there and I think it actually does taste better - even when we've had basil come in and I've felt good about making homemade, it only seemed to taste really good after sitting for a few days. :)
We do lots of pepperoni with ours because cured meats are a food group:
But, yes, his book was great!
That looks pretty tasty.
Some nice looking pizzas on this blog! I use Peter's recipe too. I pipe Pesto onto basic red sauce recipe, bake with fresh mozzarella, and garnish with salt, olive oil, and basil.
--Pamela
That is the best looking image of a shrimp pesto pizza ever! The shrimp jump out of the image. So are those shrimp the fresh or cooked variety? They appear to be shiny and not baked dry. What's the deal? Really great looking pizza!
Eric
They were cooked. They were from the freezer from Trader Joe's or Costco, I forget which.
Okay, since we're talking pizza, I've gotta tell you about my early morning lunch pizzas. This is what happens when you have a picky eater and self-proclaimed vegetarian who needs a school lunch you hope she won't trade for fruit roll-ups. I keep artisan-bread-in-5-minutes-a-day (no-knead) dough in the fridge for this purpose. Mine uses 5 cups AP flour, 1 cup whole-wheat flour, .5 cup mixed grain cereal, 2 T wheat germ to make up the 6.5 cup flour in the ratio. In the morning I lop off a few small pieces of dough (you figure out the right size after your first attempt), leave on a floured surface to rest a few minutes while I take my shower. Then I roll out into what ever shape happens (I tried to form into balls once but found the crust a bit tough in the end), then pick up the round and stretch it a little more before putting on a cookie sheet (mine is black) dusted with cornmeal. I brush olive oil on, then top with grated mozzarella, a drizzle of thin tomato sauce (tomatoes pureed with crushed garlic, dried basil and olive oil), and a few dollops of pesto. I bake in a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes while I organize the rest of the lunch. They don't take long to cool once they're out of the oven, and I pop them into the lunch containers. I wouldn't have believed you 10 years ago if you'd told me I'd do this for my kids' lunches some day, but it actually doesn't take too long to pull it off. The pay off is that my picky eater says they are "awesome" and I know she's eating something healthy at school. (i'd include a photo if I could figure out how to insert one here.)
Wow, that is pretty cool.