Monday, March 9, 2009

Pesto Pizza

This is our favorite pizza recipe. We make a yummy homemade pizza crust and cover it with delicious pesto (sometimes we make our own and sometimes we just use a store-bought variety). Then you cook chicken and veggies in Italian seasoning and spread that over the pesto. Cover it with cheese and in a few minutes you have a delicious homemade pizza. I usually double the pizza dough recipe, because we can never have too much pizza and also because my son loves pepperoni pizza too. So we have a couple of varieties and have a good old pizza party!
What is your family's favorite kind of pizza?


Pesto Pizza
1 pound chicken breast tenders
1 Tbls dried Italian seasoning
3 Tbls pesto
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 medium zucchini, halved twice and thinly slice
yellow, red, orange, and green bell peppers, chopped
mushrooms, thinly sliced
Pizza dough:
3 and a half cups flour (you can use half whole wheat)
1-2 cups warm water
2 tbsp. yeast
2 tbsp. honey
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp of salt

Depending on if you like thick on thin crust, this dough can make 1 or 2 pizzas

For dough- place warm water, yeast, honey, olive oil, and salt in a large bowl or mixer (if you have a dough hook). Add warm water a couple Tbls at a time and mix until you have a nice smooth dough. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Cook chicken for a few minutes, in a little bit of oil over medium high heat, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Before it is cooked through, add zucchini, peppers and mushrooms. Add more Italian seasoning and cook until chicken is done and veggies are tender.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray round pizza pan or 12 by 8 baking sheet. Put pizza dough on pan and roll out with a rolling pin to desired thickness. Bake for 7 minutes on 450 degrees. Spread pesto evenly over pizza crust. Top with chicken/zucchini mixture, peppers, and mushrooms. Put cheese on top. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Coming Tomorrow-Pumpkin Cake with Whipped Cream and Pecan Praline

15 comments:

Marie Rayner said...

Oh that looks so good Mary Ann. I Love pizza!! Our favourite one is a nice veggie one with lots of black olives, sun dried tomatoes, marinated artichokes, hot sweet cherry peppers and my homemade sauce. Lots of cheese as well of course!

square kitchen said...

Funny, I use exactly the same recipe for the pizzadough... (and they ask always if there is sugar inside the dough ;-) )

I like the idea with the pesto. I think I try this in the near future. Thanks for sharing.

Maria said...

Josh LOVES pizza so we make it a lot. I always top mine with every veggie I can find...he likes sausage with veggies. I make my own sauce...sometimes we do pesto too! It is great on pizza!

Prudy said...

Hubba hubba that looks like a winner! Delicious! I love all pizza, as long as it's homemade or from a wood fired oven. My husband is trying to build me a brick oven in the backyard but he can't get too serious about it till he finishes his doctorate next month. I can't wait because I really want that pizza oven.

Meghan said...

I love pizza and I love chicken but have never put them together - this sounds so good! I have some Trader Joe's pizza dough in the freezer and will have to try this!

Aggie said...

My favorite is sausage and peppers...but this pesto pizza might be my next favorite! This looks awesome! We have been making our own pizza (store bought dough) lately...I am totally going to try this!! Yum!

Gianina said...

This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it!

Cathy said...

We love ALL kinds of pizzas, from those with lots of meats, those with lots of veggies, and everything in between. Pesto with chicken and veggies sounds about perfect! I just bought myself a new pizza stone this weekend, so I am going to be making this pizza this week!

Anonymous said...

YUM!I love homemade pizza.

My husbands favorite pizza is pesto with cheese and broccoli. My favorite is pizza bianca with no sauce just olive oil, salt, fresh herb, and sliced fresh mozzarella. YUM!

The Blonde Duck said...

I LOVE pizza with salami and pepparoni and canadian ham and sausage, black olives, peppers and thick crust....

Unknown said...

We are picky pizza people and this one looks like it fits right into our liking! Can't wait to try it!!

Lisa Pogue said...

We have pizza at least once a week. I cannot wait to try this crust recipe. We throw anything and everything on a pizza. He likes a lot of cheese. I don't. That's the only bad part, oh and I love too many mushrooms, yummy!!

Not Another Omnivore said...

Mmm fabulous photos! My aunt makes pesto and I love it!

NAOmni

Treehouse Chef said...

I love pesto and pizza and the thought of these combined are calling me into the kitchen. You have some great recipes posted.

Colleen said...

This looks delicious! All my favorite flavors for a pizza combined into one! I love the pics on your blog too - beautiful!