Parmesan Pesto Pizza - SAMM

Time for another round of SAMM (Share a Meal Monday).  You should go link up to Michelle's blog, it's fun and you might find a recipe or two you like.


This week we made one of our favorite meals and probably the best dish I've ever created on my own.

Doesn't it look yummy?  I was too excited to eat it so I forgot to take a picture before I cut it... oops.




Here's what you do.


Make up your favorite pizza dough recipe.  I'll give you mine at the end of the post even though I don't think it's that great.  It turns out pretty good but it's not very good leftover, it gets kind of tough.  I'm sure there's a better one out there and if you have one you should give it to me.


One your dough has risen and is ready to go roll it out to fit your pan.  I use a pizza stone and you should too, they make such a good crust.  There was a time when Brad and I discovered BBQ pizza and we thought it was the best thing ever.  Then one day we were out of propane so we decided to use the stone we got as a wedding gift, turns out the stone was much better and way less work.  They're really cheap so you should get one.


So roll out your dough and then spread on top some pesto.  You could make your own and I'm sure it would tase even better but that adds a lot of cost and time and dishes and the point of pizza is easy and yummy so I use a prepared pesto.


This one to be exact.

Once your pesto is spread, top with some tomatoes.  I use vine ripened because I think they're yummier than hot house and I think they look prettier when they're sliced and layed on top but they're a lot easier to eat and you don't need as many if you dice them.  Top your tomatoes with a generous amount of crumbled feta.  I don't crumble it very finely because I think the big chunks.


The next and last ingredient is the most important, the Parmesan cheese.  If you use that horrible bottle of kraft powdered cheese you will completely ruin this pizza, you may as well just not bother making it.  And that pre-shredded stuff isn't much better, it really is worth it to spend the extra money on good, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  It makes a huge difference and you will not regret it, despite the price tag (usually you find it in the deli section with the specialty cheeses).  There aren't many ingredients on this pizza so it's important that they're all really good ones.


Once your pizza is dressed it looks like this (You should try to spread your ingredients further to the edge than I did on this pizza.  You can see there's a ring of pesto with nothing on it near the crust and I was disappointed while I was eating that there wasn't any good stuff there).

Now technically when you use a pizza stone you're supposed to pre-heat the stone.  I've done it once and didn't notice any difference except that it's a pain to deal with a hot stone so I don't bother.  I put the pizza in a hot oven, 375 ish and bake until it looks good, maybe 15 minutes to 30 minutes?  Sorry, I don't ever time it, you want the crust to look slightly brown and the feta should look yummy and browned in places too.

This is an easy meal that we love, maybe it will become one of your favorites too!


Pizza Dough

1 1/4 cups water 
3 cups bread flour (I always use all purpose)
2 tsp active dry yeast 
1 1/2 tbsp white sugar 
1 tsp salt 
1 tsp powdered milk (I used milk once and I didn’t like the texture difference)


Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine, in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select Dough cycle. After cycle is completed, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. 


My bread machine died so instead I put all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aid and knead using the dough hook until it looks done.  Then I spray my bowl with olive oil and cover with saran for a couple of hours.  Or sometimes I pop it in the fridge and let it rise overnight.