The other day Vince found a this recipe and posted it on Facebook. I had all the weird things that were needed – pesto, fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers but I had no green olives! I knew I wouldn’t have blue cheese stuffed olives but I had no green olives at all. While Vince was out one day this week, he picked up some olives so tonight, we had Pesto Pizza.
I’ve mentioned it on here before but the Peter Reinhart Perfect Pizza at Home class has the best pizza crust recipe. I love the Sicilian crust and make it often and use it also for foccacia.
I have pizza stones, pizza pans and about anything you might want for making pizza but I love my cast iron pizza pan. When I make the Sicilian crust, it’s a bit wet and oily but I had a bit of extra olive oil to the pan. I do not preheat the pan but the bottom of the crust gets almost like fried bread dough and the rest of the crust is tender and chewy so with that little bit of crusty part on the bottom, it’s so good!
Here’s the pizza before it was baked.
Pizza
Here’s my version of the recipe. These ingredients will make about a 14″ pizza. You can make it smaller and cut down the ingredients if you like.
Pesto Pizza
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe of Sicilian pizza crust from Peter Reinhart’s recipe or any crust you prefer.
7 oz. container pesto (or make your own)
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1 cup green olives, sliced
3/4 cup roasted bell peppers, drained and sliced
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup shaved soppressata
Directions:
1. Pre-bake pizza crust. I baked mine early in the day and just re-heated it with the toppings.
2. Pre-heat oven to 475.
3. Once the crust has cooled, spread the pesto across the top.
4. Top with mozzarella, roasted peppers, and olives.
5. Add blue cheese crumbles and soppressata.
6. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes . . til cheeses are melted and pizza is hot.
Here it is baked:
Pizza
Judy H says
I have the same pan and use it regularly! :).
Sherrill says
I LOVE green olives on my pizza but not real sure about adding the blue cheese and pesto. Just green olives..YUMMY!
Vivian says
I like to use pesto, thinly sliced tomatoes, and lots of cheese. Sometimes I add small chunks of cooked chicken. I do add garlic, also. Yummy.
Hilary says
I made Peters pizza the other night, too. I made fresh pesto, added tomatoes, spinach and arugula, mozzarella, fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Then roasted in the pizza oven. The smokiness of the oven really takes pizza to another level.
Liz A. says
Is here a reason you pre-bake the crust? Will it work without pre-baking? I’ve tried his regular pizza crust and we love it…..we just have problems transferring it from the peel to the stone. I like the fact you don’t have to preheat the lodge pan….might have to get one of those….