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This delicious Pesto Pizza is topped with pesto, loaded with veggies, and is all on a whole wheat crust! You’ll love these flavors together!
Pesto Pizza | Vegetarians Rejoice!
Made with three types of cheese, a whole wheat crust, and a ton of different veggies, this Pesto Pizza is a winner for any weeknight. It’s a vegetarian recipe but that doesn’t mean it’s not filling. The best part about all of it? You can customize it with all of our favorite toppings!
Main Ingredients Needed
Scour your fridge for any veggies you need to use up, or scour the produce section at the store the next time you go grocery shopping. Either way, here’s what you’ll need to make Pesto Pizza:
Pizza Dough – I used my own Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. But feel free to use the store-bought stuff.
Pesto – I totally bought a huge jar of pesto at Costco over the weekend and plan to use it all up! Or you could make my homemade pesto!
Spinach, Zucchini, Olives, Artichoke + Green Peppers – all the veggies that go onto the pizza and into the oven! Lot’s of green goodies here.
Mozzarella, Cheddar Cheese + Parmigiano Reggiano – cheese overload! How could you go wrong with this blend? So yummy!
Tomatoes + Green Onions – these are the cold veggies that top the pizza after it’s done baking. I love the hot and cold combination.
Variations
Feel free to use whatever veggies you like on your pesto pizza. Here are a couple of ideas:
broccoli
bell peppers
red onions
mushrooms
asparagus
yellow squash
kale
brussel sprouts
Need Some Protein?
And if you absolutely need some meat with your pizza I’d say go with chicken for this recipe. It’s subtle enough that you still get all of the great flavors of the veggies.
How to Make Pesto Pizza
For full details on how to make pesto pizza, see the recipe card down below!
Step 1: Pizza Dough and Pesto
Start out with some pizza dough. Once the pizza dough is ready to go, grab some pesto. Spread some over your pizza to cover the dough in a thin layer.
Be sure to check out all my other pesto recipes while you’re at it!
Amazing Pesto Recipe
Vegetarian Burrito Recipe
Spinach Pesto Recipe
Broccoli Pesto Pasta
Consider making this Pesto Pizza this week! It’s a good one!
The printable recipe card is down below, enjoy 🙂
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5 from 1 vote
Pesto Pizza
This delicious Pesto Pizza is topped with pesto, loaded with veggies, and is all on a whole wheat crust! You'll love these flavors together!
servings 3servings
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 10 minutesmins
Total Time 25 minutesmins
Ingredients
1/2recipeFail Proof Pizza Dough
1/3cupprepared pesto
1cupbaby spinach loosely packed
6ozsliced fresh mozzarella
1/3zucchinisliced very thin
1/4cupsliced green olives
1/3cupchopped marinated artichoke hearts
1/2large green bell peppersliced
1/2cupgrated cheddar cheese
1/2cupgrated parmigianno reggiano cheese
1tomatosliced
1green onionchopped
US Customary – Metric
Instructions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Line pizza pan with parchment {if desired} or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Spread pizza dough out to be 12-14 inches in diameter. Spread pesto over dough.
Top with spinach, fresh mozzarella…
zucchini, olives, artichokes, green pepper…
cheddar, and parmesan cheeses.
Bake 7-10 minutes or until edges are brown and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes. Top with tomato slices and green onion. Slice and serve.
Pizza pesto Genovese is a variety of Italian pizza that is traditionally topped with pieces of mozzarella and the famous pesto sauce. The pizza is typically finished off with a drizzle of olive oil before serving.
Is Pesto Vegetarian? Traditional basil pesto is not vegetarian because animal rennet is used in the production of the cheeses it contains. However, it is perfectly possible to create vegetarian pesto using cheese substitutes such as tofu or nutritional yeast.
This fresh sauce made from basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and a salty hard cheese might possibly be the oldest Italian sauce. You may also see it called Pesto alla Genovese after the town of Genoa, where it originated.
This Pesto Pepperoni Pizza is the ultimate easy Summer dinner! It's fresh, seasonal and so delicious thanks to an extra drizzle of hot honey at the end!
Now there are many gourmet pizzerias and pizza with pesto can be eaten all over Italy. Sure. Obviously it is not a traditional topping but above all in Liguria, where pesto was born and where I have been going on vacation since I was a child, pizza with pesto is very common.
What Kind of Cheese Should I Use? I used fresh mozzarella because I love the way it melts, but you can use block or grated mozzarella in its place (that's usually more affordable as well). Other types of cheese that would work great with pesto are: smoked mozzarella, gruyere, swiss, brie, or white cheddar.
“I just find that sweet white miso is the best substitute for Parmesan.” Miso Master is her brand of choice because of its mild flavor and aerated texture, which keeps the sauce light and creamy. “You get a little sweetness and a ton of umami,” she says.
So Why Isn't Parmesan Cheese Vegetarian? This answer is encapsulated in one word: rennet. Specifically animal rennet, collected from slaughtered cows, goats or other young, milk-fed ruminant animals.
Unfortunately, most supermarket pesto brands aren't vegetarian. Parmesan, a key ingredient in pesto, contains rennet which is an enzyme found in the stomach of a goat or calf.
To me, a good pesto pizza should have bold pesto flavor. I don't want it to taste faintly of basil, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil—I want those flavors to bowl me over. The key is to spread a generous layer of pesto over the pizzas before baking, and then top them with more pesto when they come out of the oven.
Any red pesto will have a cheese, olive oil, garlic, and nut base. Those nuts can be pine nuts, walnuts, or almonds, but they perform the same function, adding body to what would otherwise be a thin sauce. The difference between red pestos is in which fruit provides the signature coloration — peppers or tomatoes.
Whether in its simple version with mozzarella fiordilatte or mozzarella de bufala (in which case it would technically be called a Bufalina pizza), the Margherita pizza is undoubtedly the favourite pizza of Italian people.
Sicilian pizza is also known as sfincione (Italian: [sfinˈtʃoːne]; Sicilian: sfinciuni, Sicilian: [sfɪnˈtʃuːnɪ]) or focaccia with toppings. This type of pizza became a popular dish in western Sicily by the mid-19th century and was the type of pizza usually consumed in Sicily until the 1860s.
But long before cheese pizza took the world by storm, there was another, more widely known dish in Italy called “Neapolitan pizza.” This was a baked dessert pie stuffed with almond custard.
Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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