Shed Kitchen: Pesto Pizza

For some reason, I love pizza in February. (And on Friday nights!!) I don’t know why, but it just seems like a great fit to me. So I wanted to come up with a new pizza recipe…and I wanted it to have pesto on it! Once I got that figured it out, it wasn’t hard to figure out what else this pizza was going to need to be off the hook!

I also decided to use a new dough recipe, because, hey, it’s always good to mix it up a little! (You can find the recipe I usually use here.) This recipe is from The Art of Simple Food, and I’ve so far been incredibly impressed by this cookbook, so I wanted to use it again. The dough recipe can also be used to make foccacia bread, which I did — but we’ll get into all that.

Ingredients

(Makes two 10 inch pizzas, four mini pizzas, or two mini pizzas and a loaf of foccacia bread)

Dough

2 tsp dry yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1/4 cup plus 3 and 1/4 cups unbleached white flour

(Not hard to find at any grocery store, and at less than $3, totally worth the healthy upgrade)

1/4 cup rye flour

(I used Bob’s brand, but if you can’t find it, you can use whole-wheat flour instead. I highly recommend the rye though…it has 4 grams of fiber per serving! Good to have in your pantry!)

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup olive oil

Toppings (less of each if you are making just two mini-pizzas, as I did)….

1/2 cup pesto

1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup artichokes, drained and chopped into bite size pieces

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (dry, not oil packed)

1 cup baby spinach, chopped into bite-sized pieces (you can also use frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed/drained well)

This Is How We Do It

Combine the yeast and water, and then add 1/4 cup white flour and the rye flour.

Let sit for about 30 minutes. In another bowl combine 3 and 1/4 cups white flour and the salt. Stir into the yeast mixture and add the water and olive oil.

If mixing by hand, turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until it is soft and elastic, about five minutes. I used Betty and her bread hook. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky — the book says what to do if it’s too wet, but mine was a little too dry, so I added a couple tablespoons of cold water.

Put the dough in a large bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about two hours, when it should be doubled in size. You can also let it rise in the fridge overnight, which will create a better-tasting dough. (Just take it out two hours before shaping.)

If you want to make two mini pizzas and a loaf of foccacia, which is what I did, split the dough in half at this point.

For the bread: grease a small baking sheet with olive oil and spread the bread onto the baking sheet, pressing it as flat as possible with your fingers. (If the dough is resisting, let it rest for ten minutes.) Dimple it lightly with your fingertips, drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, cover, and let rise for about two hours. Sprinkle it with sea salt (or fresh herbs, like rosemary or sage) and bake for 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

Form the pizza dough into balls and wrap loosely in plastic; let them rest for about an hour.

(Rest…heh…dough gets tired…dough needs a nap!)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Separate the dough into disks, flour lightly, cover, and let rest for another 15 minutes. (Dough hits the snooze.)

Finally! Dough! Roll them out nice and thin.

Top the dough with pesto (about two tablespoons for mini pizzas), artichokes, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Sprinkle with mozzarella. Use a light hand! For two mini-pizzas, you don’t need more than a quarter-cup. Keep it light and healthy!

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the crust is browned. While it’s baking, make a nice green salad!

Oh, HELLO!!!

I was dying when I was eating this…like, shutting out the world and just entering a carby, pesto-y state of bliss.

One of the things I love about this recipe is that it’s good for a single girl. You can make four mini pizzas and actually put three of them in the freezer. Just freeze on a cookie sheet for a couple hours, and then remove, wrap in plastic, then foil, and re-freeze. In a month when you need carbs in a major way and you really want to stop for a DiGiorno on your way home from work…nope! No need! Just remove one from the freezer and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Having them in the freezer is also nice for when you want to host impromptu gathering at your place. Economical, time-saving, and healthy.

Pizza is one of those things that can easily be healthy but has become so bastardized in recent years that it’s gained a bad rap. Not necessary! In the cold winter months, we all want warm and fluffy carbs; this is a great way to get them.

Tagged as: Alice Waters, carbs, cheese, homemade bread, homemade pizza, Italian food, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetarianism