|
Pesto pizza is a pizza made with pesto and diced tomatoes instead of pizza sauce. I never even knew what pesto was until I tried this, but it is very good! There are 2 different types of pesto - basil and tomato. (Basil is green, tomato is red.) I strongly recommend the basil type for this recipe because the tomato tastes pretty similar to regular pizza sauce.
This recipe will feed as many people as any other pizza. Around here, that means two people. The recipe looks like more trouble than it really is. This is not much harder than making a sandwich.
Ingredients:
pre-made pizza crust (Digiorno, Pilsbury)
1 jar/can basil pesto sauce, 6 - 7 oz
1 can chunky diced tomatoes (10 - 14 oz, plain, Italian, or peppers & onion)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
red pepper flakes
sliced olives or mushrooms (optional)
Instructions:
1) If the crust you bought is uncooked, cook it however the instructions say. (Skip this step if the crust is pre-baked.)
2) Heat the oven to 425 degrees, or whatever other temperature is specified by your premade pizza crust.
3) Open the pesto and the canned diced tomatoes. Pour as much of the oil off the top of the pesto as possible. Leave the opened lid on the tomatoes and turn the can upside down on a freshly cleaned sink basin so that the tomatoes can drain thoroughly.
4) Dump the whole jar of pesto onto the crust and spread it evenly with a fork.
5) Add the whole can of tomatoes on top of the pesto using a fork. Try to make the tomatoes fall from the can where you want them to stay so that you don't have to stir up the pesto you already evened out. If you cover the whole pizza and still have tomatoes left in the can, then that portion is not needed. Do not dump the can out like you did with the pesto because there may still be pockets of water in the can.
6) Cover the top of the tomatoes with mozzarella cheese. It should be a thin layer covering most of the tomatoes, but not a heaping pile that totally blocks out all the red of the tomatoes. I estimate that it takes about 1 cup, maybe more or maybe less. Just sprinkle it on until it looks like pizza.
7) Sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper and add olives or mushrooms if desired.
8) Put the pizza on a pizza pan or cookie sheet covered with foil (makes clean-up easier) and cook for 12 minutes.
*Note - The only likely mistake to be made with this recipe is not draining the tomatoes and/or the pesto well enough. Neither one will make it taste bad, but it may turn out a little bit on the oily or soggy side.
Suggested sides:
salad
fruit cocktail
The Man Cookbook Homepage
|