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    Home » Vegetarian Pizza Recipes » Pesto Pizza

    Pesto Pizza

    Posted on April 19, 2017 · Last Updated on December 7, 2021 · By Srividhya G · 18 Comments

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    Homemade Vegetarian Pesto Pizza topped with mozzarella, mushrooms, and tomatoes. The pizza base is prepared with homemade pizza dough.

    P is for Pizza, precisely Pesto Pizza and it’s my favorite kind of pizza. This is my second recipe from the land of Italy after Focaccia. I love thin-crust pizzas and the one that I posted earlier is also a thin crust one and today’s recipe is also a thin crust one. Will you believe me that this pizza is a perfect weekday dinner and it can be prepared within 30 minutes with proper planning? No, I am not kidding, and that’s what I am going to share today, how I planned and prepared this.

    Ok, I made this as a semi-homemade recipe as I used store-bought pesto. I know I have posted homemade pesto recipe before (the post needs a picture update) but as I had some leftover store-bought pesto, I went with that. But I prepared the base from scratch though. 

    I followed the same thin, crust recipe that I posted in my margarita pizza and followed the same procedure that I followed for my Obinon i.e. I prepared the dough in the morning before going to work and kept it in the refrigerator and let it rise. By evening the dough was all set, and all I had to do was knead, assemble and add the topping and bake. Boom, our dinner was ready. Now tell me, isn’t this a perfect weekday dinner. I know I am repeating this again and again. Cooking is all about planning. 

    Pesto Pizza with homemade pizza dough

    Coming back to pizzas, we love thin-crust pizzas and non-tomato based ones. We always opt for pesto ones. The basil sure has some magic in it. :-)  CPK’s wild mushroom pizza Blue line’s white pie pizza is on my to-do list. Kiddo has passed the cheese pizza stage, and I am super glad that we can try all the other varieties now and this pesto pizza is one of his favorite pizzas. So without any further ado, here is the pizza recipe,

    But before, the recap (All three years, it’s a recipe starting with P :-) ) from previous marathons and then the recipe. The printable recipe at the bottom.

    • Day 16 | 2015 – Pizza Puffs
    • Day 16 | 2016  – Pitlai

    Pesto Pizza with homemade pizza dough

    Ingredients:

    For the base: (This is one base, double the measure for 2 )

    For the pizza dough:

    • Lukewarm water – ⅓ cup
    • Active dry or instant yeast – ½ tsp heaped
    • All-purpose flour – 1 cup
    • Salt – ¾ tsp
    • Sugar – 1 tsp
    • Oil for greasing

    For the toppings:

    • Pesto – 3 tbsps
    • Chopped mushrooms – ¼ cup
    • Cherry tomatoes – 6
    • Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – as required

    How to make pesto pizza

    • Sieve the APF and add salt, sugar, and yeast. Combine it nicely.
    • Now slowly add water (2 tbsps. at a time) and start mixing the dough to form a ball. If the dough is sticky, add more flour, or if it’s too dry add more water.
    • Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
    • Grease a big vessel with sufficient room for the dough to rise with olive oil.
    • Spread some oil on top of the dough too. Now wrap the bowl with cling film, and for a slow rise, you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 8 or 9 hours. For instant growth, you can keep it a warm place for about 2 hours or until it doubles up. I kept it in my refrigerator.

    Kneading:

    • Once the dough has raised, remove the cling film and punch it down.
    • Knead it on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes to build the gluten content and to remove all the air pockets. (as you can see, kiddo helped me)

    Rolling and Assembling Pizza:

    • Dust the pizza stone with cornmeal or semolina.
    • Preheat the oven along with the pizza stone to 500 degrees F. If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can directly bake in the baking trays.
    • Dust the surface where you are going to roll the pizza with flour and using a rolling pin or chapati roller into a thin crust like below. If you prefer a thick crust, roll accordingly.

    • After rolling, let it sit for 15 minutes.
    • Then spread the pesto evenly and then the grated cheese, chopped mushrooms, and tomatoes. You can add in any order.
    • Now carefully, transfer this rolled pizza onto the hot pizza stone.

    • Reduce the oven temperature to 475-degree f.
    • Bake the pizza at 450 degrees F for about 8-10 mts till the crust turns golden brown, and cheese is all bubbly.

    • Carefully remove the pizza and serve hot.

    Pesto Pizza with homemade pizza dough

    Notes:

    • You can choose your favorite topping. You can go for other cheese varieties, sun-dried tomatoes, or veggies of your choice.
    • Roll the pizza according to your crust preference.
    • It’s not mandatory to place the dough in the refrigerator. During weekdays, I usually prepare the dough in the morning and put them in the fridge to rise. But you can keep them in a warm place and once the dough has doubled up, make sure you prepare the pizza within 2 hours if not refrigerate it.
    • As I used instant yeast, I didn’t proof it. If you are using active dry yeast, mix the yeast in the Luke warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then use this mixture for preparing the dough.
    • Instead of APF, you can make the pizza base with wheat flour too.

    Pesto Pizza with homemade pizza dough

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    5 from 1 vote

    Pesto Pizza

    Homemade Vegetarian Pesto Pizza topped with mozzarella, mushrooms, and tomatoes. The pizza base is prepared with home made pizza dough.
    Prep Time8 hrs 30 mins
    Cook Time30 mins
    Total Time9 hrs
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: Italian
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 231kcal
    Author: Srividhya G

    Ingredients

    For pizza dough

    • ⅓ cup Luke warm water
    • ½ tsp Active dry or instant yeast heaped
    • 1 cup All-purpose flour
    • ¾ tsp Salt
    • 1 tsp Sugar
    • 1 tbsp Oil for greasing

    For the toppings

    • 3 tbsp Pesto
    • ¼ cup Mushrooms chopped
    • 6 Cherry tomatoes chopped
    • ⅓ cup Mozarella Cheese shredded , use as required

    Instructions

    Steps

    • Sieve the APF and add salt, sugar, and yeast. Combine it nicely.
    • Now slowly add water (2 tbsps. at a time) and start mixing the dough to form a ball. If the dough is sticky, add more flour or if it’s too dry add more water.
    • Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
    • Grease a big vessel with sufficient room for the dough to rise with olive oil.
    • Spread some oil on top of the dough too. Now wrap the bowl with cling film, and for a slow rise, you can keep it refrigerator for up to 8 or 9 hours and for the instant rise, you can keep it a warm place for about 2 hours or until it doubles up. I kept in my refrigerator.

    Kneading

    • Once the dough has raised, remove the cling film and punch it down.
    • Knead it on lightly floured surface for 5 minutes to build the gluten content and to remove all the air pockets. (as you can see, kiddo helped me)

    Rolling and Assembling Pizza

    • Dust the pizza stone with the corn meal or semolina.
    • Preheat the oven along with the pizza stone to 500 degrees F. If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can directly bake in the baking trays.
    • Dust the surface where you are going to the roll the pizza with flour and using a rolling pin or chapati rolling pin into a thin crust like below. If you prefer a thick crust, roll accordingly.
    • After rolling, let it sit for 15 minutes.
    • Then spread the pesto evenly and then the grated cheese, chopped mushrooms, and tomatoes. You can add in any order.
    • Now carefully, transfer this rolled pizza onto the hot pizza stone.
    • Reduce the oven temperature to 450-degree f.
    • Bake the pizza at 450 degrees F for about 8-10 mts till the crust turns golden brown, and cheese is all bubbly.
    • Carefully remove the pizza and serve hot.

    Notes

    • You can choose your favorite topping. You can go for other cheese varieties, sun-dried tomatoes or veggies of your choice.
    • Roll the pizza according to your crust preference.
    • It’s not mandatory to place the dough in the refrigerator. During weekdays, I usually prepare the dough in the morning and put them in the fridge to rise. But you can keep them in a warm place and once the dough has doubled up, make sure you prepare the pizza within 2 hours if not refrigerate it.
    • As I used instant yeast, I didn’t proof it. If you are using active dry yeast, mix the yeast in the Luke warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then use this mixture for preparing the dough.
    • Instead of APF, you can make the pizza base with wheat flour too.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 231kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 605mg | Potassium: 130mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 415IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 74mg | Iron: 2mg

    I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @vidhyasvegetariankitchen or tag #vidhyasvegkitchen
    For Video RecipesCheck out My YouTube Channel

     Sending this recipe to Valli’s Anniversary Mela Event.

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    Filed Under: Blogging Marathon, International, Italian, Vegetarian Pizza Recipes Tagged With: Blogging Marathon, easy pizza, homemade pesto pizza, how to prepare pesto pizza, how to prepare thin crust pizza, Pesto, pesto pizza, pesto pizza recipe, pizza, pizza dough recipe, thin crust pesto pizza with vegetables, thin crust pizza, vegetarian pizza

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sandhya Ramakrishnan says

      June 08, 2017 at 9:53 pm

      The thin crust pizza has come out marvelous and the flavor of pesto is absolutely delish. I love pesto on anything.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        June 09, 2017 at 12:53 pm

        Same here… pesto makes everything taste heavenly. ;-)

        Reply
    2. Sharmila - The Happie Friends Potpourri Corner says

      May 27, 2017 at 4:54 am

      Love anything with pesto.. Now i can dive in to this beautifully baked pizza.. Those Cherry tomatoes looks lovely!!

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        May 30, 2017 at 8:29 am

        Thanks much da.

        Reply
    3. Sapana says

      May 17, 2017 at 12:57 pm

      I am yet to try Pesto on pizzas but seriously this looks totally irresistible.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        May 18, 2017 at 8:34 am

        Thanks a lot Sapana.

        Reply
    4. Pavani says

      May 12, 2017 at 5:48 pm

      Yummy yummy!! Nothing else to say about that perfectly made pesto pizza — just pass me a slice :-)

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        May 12, 2017 at 6:57 pm

        Sure… Thanks a ton.

        Reply
    5. Srivalli Jetti says

      April 27, 2017 at 2:16 am

      So beautifully done Srividhya…I am yet to try a different base sauce for my pizzas as I am crazy about tomato sauce, however I remember enjoying a spinach sauce in a Lebanon restaurant and this reminds me of that!..cooking is all about planning and executing it as planned..sometimes even if we dont’ follow the same menu, having a planned menu helps us select something else properly..:)

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 27, 2017 at 8:55 am

        Completely agree with you regarding planning and executing. That spinach sauce sounds interesting Valli. Got to try it out. Thanks a lot.

        Reply
    6. Harini-Jaya R says

      April 25, 2017 at 5:42 am

      Looks beautiful and colorful. My family would love to have it for dinner :)

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 25, 2017 at 5:57 am

        :-) Thanks Harini

        Reply
    7. Sowmya:) says

      April 24, 2017 at 10:36 am

      Pesto pizza sounds gorgeous. Lovely clicks. And I completely agree that cooking is all planning. Yum yum pizza

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 24, 2017 at 3:42 pm

        Thank you so much.

        Reply
    8. Priya Suresh says

      April 22, 2017 at 2:07 pm

      Am a die hard fan of pesto and in pizza, who will say no to this fantastic pizza, my mouth is just watering here.

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 24, 2017 at 8:34 am

        Same pinchhhhh… Thankoo priya

        Reply
    9. Namratha says

      April 19, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Gorgeous pizza! We love pesto too and nothing beats pesto pizza. I’m waiting for my boys to grow out of the cheese pizza phase too :D

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        April 20, 2017 at 7:44 am

        Oh yeah very true.Love pesto on pizza… No worries, the boys will grow out this phase soon.

        Reply

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