Thursday, April 3, 2014

Zucchini Pesto Pizza

Well, spring is starting to show up here in Philly, so it's time for me to come out of hibernation!

Some friends of ours were in town last weekend, so I decided to do some cooking. Pizza makes for great casual entertaining food, so I made two: one traditional pepperoni (Scott's favorite) and a vegetarian option. It was delicious, if I do say so myself!

Notes: I neglected to take a photo of this one since we had guests!

The crust for the zucchini pizza was a mostly whole wheat crust because I happened to have some white/wheat flour to use up. I don't really prefer it for pizza crust because I think it comes out too dry, but the flavor paired nicely with the homemade pesto.

I used havarti instead of the traditional mozzarella for this pizza. Havarti melts beautifully and you don't get the excess liquid that you can occasionally get with fresh mozzarella.

If you have a mandolin, you can make quick work of the zucchini. I have one, but mine is such a pain to clean and store, I just used a knife.

You can slice the zucchini and make the pesto ahead of time if you're using this recipe to entertain.

Ingredients:
1 ball of homemade pizza dough
Some homemade pesto
1/2 a medium-sized zucchini
Approximately 5 oz of havarti cheese

Directions: Position the oven racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven. Heat the oven to 500. While you're waiting for the oven to heat, shred the cheese and thinly slice the zucchini.

Roll out your pizza dough to your desired size and shape (I used a regular round pizza pan).

Spread the pesto on the pizza (reserve some for garnish). Cover the pizza evenly with a layer of cheese. Lay the zucchini slices on top of the pizza.

Bake the pizza on the bottom rack for 8-9 minutes and then move the pizza to the top rack for 8-9 more minutes until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown just slightly. Top the pizza with the reserved pesto. Slice and enjoy!

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