Colorful Tomato and Basil Pesto Pizza

Basil is easy to grow in Louisiana in the summertime. In fact, my garden is full of the herb. One seed packet makes a huge crop. Basil makes a nice addition to salads and pasta. Pizza is a favorite dish and I experimented with using basil in a pizza tart recipe. The homemade pizza is surprisingly easy to make and has become a family favorite.   Colorful Fresh Tomato and Basil Pesto Pizza

This pizza, or tart, is simple to assemble with the help of convenience dough for the crust and pre-sliced provolone cheese. Basil pesto is quick when made in a food processor. I skipped the pizza sauce and used fresh tomatoes instead. The ripe and colorful red, yellow and orange tomatoes are perfect for a topping–they apparently are grown in a hot house as they are available year around. Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

Making pizza at home isn’t difficult. The dough is probably the most challenging part of the process. We didn’t have convenient pizza delivery stores growing up in rural Virginia. Plus my mother liked to make things from scratch, so we made our own pizza dough using a variety of methods.

Pizza dough is a yeast dough similar to bread dough and there are several ways to make the crust. One easy solution is to use frozen convenience bread dough for the crust. It actually works very well (and takes like commercial pizza). A one pound loaf of the dough is enough for a medium size pizza.

Thaw the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Alternately thaw at room temperature. Then place in oiled bowl that fits dough, cover and set in warm location to rise until dough reaches top of bowl. This manufacturer states this takes from 3 – 6 hours; I did not try this route. Bread dough is very stretchy and it can be a challenge making the dough stretch to fit the oiled baking sheet. With the help of a rolling pin and some patience it works.

Basil Pesto

Basil pesto is a good way to use lots of the basil from the garden. For the pizza, I made sort of a mash using fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts and a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Blend everything together in a food processor. A basil pesto dressing is similar, just has more olive oil, which is not needed in this recipe. Assembling the Pizza

Gently brush the pizza dough with olive oil and pre-cook the dough in the oven for 10 minutes prior to adding the rest of the ingredients. This browns and bakes the dough. In this pizza the other ingredients really just need to heat through with the cheese melting. This assured things finish cooking at the same time. Layer the provolone cheese slices onto the pre-cooked dough. Then add the basil pesto mash. Top with the tomato slices and bake or broil the tomatoes. Recipe

A simple summer supper!