Pesto pizza is a delicious, Italian-inspired combo that’s excellent in the summer. With a homemade basil-based pesto sauce, this is a light pizza – fresh and airy – that’s not too heavy on the calories!
Pesto on pizza makes for the perfect base, and you can customize this pizza with your favorite toppings. We suggest tasty sliced tomatoes and melted mozzarella, garnished with a sprinkling of oregano.
Are you looking for a fresh new pizza to try baking at home? Then keep reading for our pesto pizza recipe!
How to Make Pesto Pizza
Pesto pizza is easy to make, but while you could just use store-bought pizza dough and a jar of pesto, we highly recommend taking the extra time to make these ingredients from scratch!
This is one recipe that’s best when it’s fresh. You can make this recipe with the toppings you enjoy the most, but it works well with vegetables rather than meats. This is more of a green pizza rather than a meaty one!
The basic ingredients you need to get started are the following:
- Pizza dough
- Pesto sauce
- Tomatoes
- Mozzarella
- Oregano
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
We like to keep the pesto pizza recipe simple, but there are lots of other vegetables that go well as toppings too:
- Spinach;
- Kale;
- Mushrooms;
- Onions;
- Peppers;
- Sweetcorn, and any of your other favorites.
Finely shredded parmesan can be added for a lovely finish or as a lighter alternative to the melted mozzarella.
How Do I Make the Pizza Dough?
If you haven’t got the time, then sure, just go for the store-bought dough, but if you want to expand your pizza-making skills, then it’s well worth making your own (and a lot of fun too!).
To make pizza dough, we need it to be springy and slightly sweet. To achieve this, we need a little bit of sugar and some yeast. Mix this up with flour, water, and oil, and you’ve got yourself a dough!
Here’s a quick pizza dough recipe you can try out:
- 1 c of warm water
- 3 c of flour
- 2 tsp of yeast
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
To make the dough, it’s as easy as mixing all of these ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
You need to shape the dough using your hands, and if it’s too sticky, add more flour. Likewise, add more water if you think the dough is too dry for your liking.
The dough needs to be elastic-like, and when you have this consistency, it's time to knead it into shape.
Important: Once kneaded, you need to let the dough rise before you can cook with it. You can do this by storing the dough in an oiled mixing bowl and covering it with a towel or plastic wrap. Keep the dough at room temperature, and it should take 90 minutes for the yeast to work its magic!
How Do I Make Homemade Pesto Sauce?
Pesto sauce is surprisingly simple to mix up at home. It requires zero cooking skills, as all you need to do is measure out the ingredients and mix them together into a smooth paste in a blender or food processor!
To make pesto sauce, you need:
- Basil;
- Garlic,
- Walnuts;
- Parmesan;
- Olive oil;
- Salt.
Some Quick Pizza Baking Tips!
- Because the toppings for this pizza are particularly light, you need to make sure that the pizza base (which is thick) has enough cook time in the oven.
- We really suggest that you par-bake the pizza base first, just for a few minutes, before loading it up with pesto sauce, cheese, and tomatoes.
- A pizza stone helps to crisp up the base of the pizza, but it needs to be super hot to be effective. Make sure you place the pizza stone into the oven when you start preheating. It’s easy to crisp the crust of the pizza using olive oil or dusting cornmeal around the edges.
- Use a pizza peel to place the pizza in and out of the oven. A pizza peel helps you to keep the shape of the pizza when moving it around, and of course, it stops you from burning your fingers!
And what goes with pizza? At the same time as baking your pesto pizza, why not try baking some mozzarella garlic bread too?
Pesto pizza recipe
Makes 1 x 14 inch pesto pizza
Ingredients for pesto pizza sauce
- 1 c of basil
- 1 clove of garlic
- ¼ c of toasted walnuts
- ¼ c of shredded parmesan
- ½ c of olive oil
- Salt to taste
Ingredients for pesto pizza
- 1 lb of premade pizza dough
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- ½ c of homemade pesto sauce
- 1 c of shredded mozzarella
- 1 large sliced tomato
- Oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions for pesto pizza sauce
- Place all the pesto sauce ingredients into a food processor.
- Pulse and blend the ingredients until they are well combined. Continue pulsing until you have a smooth pesto sauce.
- Add salt and pepper, and leave in the refrigerator until you’re ready to start preparing pesto pizza!
Instructions for pesto pizza
- Start preparing pesto pizza by preheating your oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Take your premade dough and set it down on a lightly floured surface. Use your hands, or a rolling pin, to shape the pizza dough into a 14 inch pizza base. Fold the edges to form a solid pizza crust.
- Drizzle olive oil over the pizza crust (to make it crispy!), then use a pizza peel to place the pizza base into the preheated oven to par-bake for 4 minutes.
- Once the pizza base has par-baked (don’t overdo it!), take it out of the oven so you can start to add the toppings.
- Take your homemade pesto sauce out of the fridge and spread it over the pizza base.
- Next, add a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese to cover the pesto.
- Add sliced tomatoes, then season the pizza well with oregano and salt and pepper.
- Drizzle over some more olive oil, then use your pizza peel to place the pizza back into the preheated oven. Leave your pesto pizza to bake for a further 8 minutes, and remove when the cheese has melted.
- Leave to cool, cut into slices, and serve fresh!
That’s It for Our Pesto Pizza Recipe!
That’s the end of our delicious pesto pizza recipe. It’s a wonderfully light, fresh recipe that’s perfect for serving up with a small side salad for lunch or dinner.
This great pizza recipe is easy to customize, so add some extra cheese or a few extra vegetables, or cook up some cheesy garlic bread if you’re feeling hungry.
Are you ready to make pesto pizza? Then why not bookmark our guide, so you can cook up the best pizza for your family or friends?