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While my husband and I were on vacation in the Washington DC area during August 2010, we had a wonderful pesto sausage mozzarella pizza in a charming restaurant in Alexandria, VA. I had never had any particular inspiration to make pizza at home, but this pizza was so good that I decided to give it a try myself. I am very proud of the recipe that I developed and am happy to be sharing it here now. Enjoy!
Let us know what you think of this recipe!
5 stars from 2 ratings of Homemade Pesto Mozzarella Pizza Recipe
1 16 oz. box hot roll mix, Pillsbury, in the section with mixes like banana bread
1/2 cup pesto, homemade or store bought
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese or other cheese mixture
1 cup chicken breast, cooked and shredded
2 mild Italian sausages, thawed, casin removed
If you have a food processor, homemade pesto is very easy.
Pesto from Scratch - Recipe by Laura Vitale
Homemade Pesto Recipe
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup olive oil 2-3 tablespoons pine nuts 2-3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese pinch of salt
Place all ingredients in the food processor bowl. Process for 1-2 minutes or until the texture is fairly smooth. You may need to scrap down the sides of the bowl once during this process.
Plan Ahead to Reduce Cooking Time for Dinner and to Have More Delicious Chicken
Typically I make the chicken and pesto a couple days prior or simply earlier in the day so they're ready to go when I want to make pizza. If you make them ahead of time, I highly recommend "marinating" the chicken in a couple tablespoons of pesto for a minimum of 1-2 hours to make it really moist and flavorful.
You can also opt to make your pizza dough from scratch.
Following the pizza dough instructions on the side of the Pillsbury hot roll mix box, make the dough as follows. If you are wearing any rings, please take them off before handling the dough.
1) Add 1 1/4 cup hot water and 2 tablespoons olive oil to the flour and yeast mixture. If it's a little sticky, you can add some flour. I usually knead it with a spoon until it is cool enough to handle. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes until forms a solid mixture.
2) Grease two 13x9 baking pans. Divide the dough into two roughly equal pieces.
3) Using your fingers, work the dough into two large, flat pieces. It is okay if the dough doesn't touch the edges of the pans as long as it is an evenly spread.
4) Generously prick the dough with a fork.
5) Cover the pans with a towel. I push the pans right next to each other so I can use one large kitchen towel for both. Let the dough rise covered for 15 minutes.
Cooking the Sausage
After you get the dough rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. While the dough is rising, cook the sausage as follows.
1) Your sausages will come with casein. Remove the casein if you haven't done this already.
2) Spray a large frying pan with non-stick cooking spray. Break the sausages up in the pan.
3) Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat or until the sausages have cooked through. Continue to break them up as you cook them so you don't have any large pieces.
4) After they've cooked, drain the grease.
Assembling the Pizza
When your dough is done rising, it's time to assemble the pizzas!
1) Spread the pesto evenly over both pizzas.
2) Spread the cheese over both pizzas. For the pictured pizza, I used about 2 cups mozzarella, 1/2 cup Colby Jack, and a few tablespoons of Parmesan.
3) Spoon the chicken on half of one of the pizzas and the sausage on the other half.
Bake the pizzas for 20 minutes or until the crust is brown around the edges and the cheese is just starting to brown. I highly recommend placing one pan on each shelf of the oven and switching them after 10 minutes.
Slice and enjoy! If you can't finish all of it for one meal (which believe me, my husband and I cannot by ourselves), it makes wonderful leftovers.
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This fresh sauce made from basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and a salty hard cheese might possibly be the oldest Italian sauce. You may also see it called Pesto alla Genovese after the town of Genoa, where it originated.
spread the pesto sauce onto the dough -- it's best of the pesto is a little less oily than usual: if I buy store-bought I let it separate a bit in the container and then avoid the oil rather than mixing it back inches. Top with the sauteed vegetables, then the shredded cheese.
What Kind of Cheese Should I Use? I used fresh mozzarella because I love the way it melts, but you can use block or grated mozzarella in its place (that's usually more affordable as well). Other types of cheese that would work great with pesto are: smoked mozzarella, gruyere, swiss, brie, or white cheddar.
It's simple and classic, a delicious reminder of how flavorful seasonal ingredients, like summer tomatoes and garden-fresh basil, can be. If you find yourself with this summer bounty on hand in the next few weeks, I really hope you'll try this pesto pizza. It's so much more than the sum of its parts.
The key is to spread a generous layer of pesto over the pizzas before baking, and then top them with more pesto when they come out of the oven. Not only do these pizzas taste very “pesto-y,” they also look gorgeous and feel a little more special than your typical pizza pie.
As you would expect, pesto's wider variety of ingredients means it does slightly better in the vitamin and mineral stakes. Pesto outsmarts tomato sauce in many of these, but the pasta sauce still provides a sizeable chunk of your recommended daily targets.
Acid in the form of vinegar or citrus juices can make a pesto taste less bitter and could even enhance the flavour of the sauce at the same time. In low concentrations, salt can be used to suppress bitterness, which is why people have been adding tiny amounts to coffee for decades. Always go easy to start with.
The cause of pesto turning brown, or grey is usually because the herbs have started oxidising. The best way to slow that process is to reduce the amount of time the sauce is exposed to air.
The best way to thicken pesto sauce or pasta sauce is by making a slurry of cornstarch and water. Simply mix 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 teaspoon of milk or water and pour it into the sauce. This will thicken the sauce and will make it creamy.
Pesto goes amazingly well with grilled steak, pork chops, chicken, and even fish, so you don't have to worry about spicing or marinating your meat. You can also season meatloaf or meatballs with pesto.
Pesto is the perfect sauce to enjoy with a dish of trofie (the traditional Ligurian short pasta), lasagna, potato gnocchi or as a topping for a bowl of minestrone. It can be mixed into tomato sauce to enhance the flavor of pasta dishes or used with fish fillets to make them more appetizing.
Pizza pesto Genovese is a variety of Italian pizza that is traditionally topped with pieces of mozzarella di bufala and the famous pesto Genovese sauce. The pizza is typically finished off with a drizzle of olive oil before serving.
Pesto pizza is a delightful change of pace for pizza night. The bright green sauce, bursting with a nutty, garlicky, herbaceous essence, brings boldness to pizza in every way possible.
It's traditional to put the basil leaves on the pizza before baking, and it bakes with the rest of the pizza. But Franco Pepe at Pepe in Grani puts fresh basil on his margherita after it is baked, and so do others I admire. I like it both ways.
This is homemade pesto pizza, the unassuming and very green, nutty, garlicky version of tomato sauce-topped pizza. Use fresh homemade pesto and top with mozzarella cheese and any other pizza toppings you enjoy. I like to finish it off with fresh basil, plus a sprinkle of red pepper flakes right before serving.
What does pesto taste like? Traditional pesto is a thick, green sauce that tastes bright and herby from the basil, and salty and rich from the cheeses and pine nuts. It should be garlicky, with pleasant grassiness from good quality olive oil.
If your main goal is to cut calories and fat, go for the marinara. If, however, you'd like to add some extra nutrients via greens such as basil or kale, and nuts, such as pine nuts or walnuts, opt for the pesto every once in a while. It's a tasty alternative to marinara, and a little goes a long way.
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