Amelia’s favorite food is pizza. Whenever we walk in through the door with a big square flat box, she always gets SO pumped because she knows exactly what it is. We don’t feed her whole slices of pizza because we’re not monsters but Josh does give her a piece or two of the crust and she LOOOOVES IT.
I actually love making pizza at home because it’s super easy and I can make it exactly how I like it: on the lighter, healthier side.
There is still cheese. A lot of cheese. But I like the veggies I select. In this case: blistered cherry tomatoes, corn and lots of basil and crushed red pepper.
Instead of a normal tomato sauce, which you could totally still do, I made a quick arugula basil pesto with walnuts and smothered that on the pizza crust.
Blistered tomatoes are the way to go because they’re so easy to prepare. Just a pan, some hot oil and a quick sear on both sides for them. This way they don’t release too much water on the pizza itself and they have some nice flavor.
I added a few pieces of burrata and it was all melty and delicious from the heat of the pizza.
Serve it with some fine, cold wine and omg hiiii dinner!
Ingredients
Pesto:
- 2 cups fresh arugula leaves
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley leaves
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice from about 1/2 large lemon
- 2 tablespoons minced shallot from about 1/2 shallot
- 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
Pizza:
- 1 tablespoon neutral-flavored oil
- 1/2 batch of homemade pizza dough or store-bought dough
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 corn on the cob kernels removed
- Salt
- 3 ounces fresh burrata torn into a few pieces
- Fresh basil leaves as garnish
Instructions
To Make the Pesto:
- In a blender or food processor, add the arugula, parsley, walnuts, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, shallot and salt. Pulse until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed. Give it a taste and adjust the salt. I added a few pinches more of salt.
To Assemble the Pizza:
- In a medium skillet, over medium-high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the tomatoes and cook until blistered, turning them over about half way through, for about 5. Remove and transfer to a bowl. Add the corn kernels and cook until lightly browned. Remove and add to the bowl with the tomatoes.
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Dust your counter or cutting board with some flour. Roll the pizza dough into a thin round shape. I like to do a combination of pressing the dough down with my fingers, stretching it and rolling it out.
- Spread a few tablespoons of pesto onto the pizza dough, stopping about an inch from the edge. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and then arrange the tomatoes on top, along with the corn. Transfer to the oven to bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. This time will depend on how hot your oven can truly get. Mine is about 450 and it took exactly 15 minutes.
- Top the pizza with a few pieces of burrito, a few leaves of basil, and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper, if you like. Slice up and serve.
This looks delicious! I will definitely have to try and recreate this! 🙂
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Love love your choice of ingredients. Expecially the corn and tomatoes. Such a wonderful and summery combo.
thanks so much, mimi!
Ooh, all that pesto is making me hungry!!! I forget about making pizza for dinner until I see a recipe like this….I alway order out. But I agree – so much healthier to make it yourself!