Homemade Pesto Pizza

When J and I got married, I learned two things very quickly. 1) A spouse's birthday is a big deal and it is NOT funny to pretend you have forgotten about it. 2) Fridays are pizza night. 


One rule was much easier to keep than the other, {due to money problems, my family regularly rearranged, postponed, or just plain ignored birthdays and holidays} so I began my quest to find the perfect homemade pizza recipe.


While in Italy, we lived off of gelato and these lovely, thin crusted pizza served on waxed brown paper. They were covered in pesto, thick slices of tomato, fresh basil leaves, cuts of barely-melted mozzarella cheese, and they were divinity itself. We filled our backpacks with jars of the locally-made pesto and brought them home as delicious souvenirs.

Alas, all of our efforts to recreate the pizzas at home were miserable failures. The crust was tasteless; the cheese dry.


Nine years later, while eating a fabulous slice of pizza beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, it occurred to me that the cheese was... different. Softer. More elastic. Yes, my friends, it took me that long to discover mozzarella fresh!


Finally, a few weeks ago, I tried Jamie Oliver's recipe for pizza dough, and the heavens opened, angels burst into song and the perfect pizza was made. 

Jamie Oliver's Pizza Dough:

• 7 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour or 5 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour, plus 2 cups finely ground semolina flour 
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 (1/4-ounce) packets active dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil {I use roasted garlic olive oil from the Olive Mill}
• 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water

Sift the flours and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a large measuring cup, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands - this is called punching down the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straightaway, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas - this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas. {I've found it makes about four large pizzas. I bake two and freeze the other two for use the following week}

Next up? Homemade pesto! I like this visual recipe via Black Eiffel: