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Homemade Pesto Pizza

Had I known sooner how easy it is to make tasty pizza at home, I would have started making it so much sooner.  My best friend Karen and her husband are wonderful cooks.  Many years ago, we used to do a rotating Thursday night dinner club where we'd take turns eating at each other's houses.  I always looked forward to the Thursdays when it was their turn to cook! Karen often shares her recipes with me and this homemade pizza is one of her latest.  She texted me the pics of her pizza with directions and I knew immediately I wanted to try it. 

She said she was still experimenting with cooking temps and times, but I read that the trick to cooking pizza at home is to get the oven very hot (500 degrees) and heat the pizza stone (I used a baking sheet) to very hot as well by preheating it in the oven for at least 30 minutes.  I did that with this thin-crust pizza and baked it for about 12 minutes.  It turned out so good!  


I think the thing that intimidated me before about making pizza at home is the crust.  But Karen recommending buying frozen premade crust and just rolling it out.  


I bought my dough at Whole Foods, but I know they sell it elsewhere.  My package comes with two frozen dough balls that you thaw in the fridge for a day or on the counter for about an hour or so.  I rolled the dough with olive oil so it wouldn't stick. 



This is a pesto pizza with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, mozzarella, a little feta and a couple cloves of garlic.  I steamed the spinach on the stove, then made sure to squeeze any excess water out.


Mix the prepared pesto with a couple drops of olive oil so it spreads easily onto the rolled dough. 


Then top with all the ingredients.  


Like I mentioned above, I preheated the oven and cookie sheet for about 30 minutes at 500 degrees.  The pizza baked for about12 minutes. 


I will definitely be making this again.  It will be fun to experiment with different variations of ingredients too. 


Do you make pizza at home?  What are your favorite toppings?

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