I've made pesto, I've made pizza, I've never made pesto pizza. I've found 3 main ideas:
1: Standard pizza style: pesto on the dough, whatever other toppings, bake the whole thing.
2: Make basically a pizza bianca, baking the dough with cheese on it, then putting the pesto on & maybe other toppings, back in the oven just for a minute or two.
3: Bake the dough bare, spread pesto on baked pizza dough, maybe put other raw ingredients on.
Seems to me you want to cook the basil as little as possible. I'm leaning towards 2 or 3, but the vast majority of recipes I saw were #1s.
Pesto.... people seem to believe that basil pesto is all there is. it can be made with anything that tastes good when you pulverize it. So if you're worried about your basil turning black when you cook it, then crush something that tends not to do that. Celery pesto is not uncommon...just one example. For pizza I crush something spicy in there.
the french man in me wants to try to make a tapenade pizza right now.
Right now in my fridge I have a walnut and sun dried tomato pesto, and a watercress, roasted garlic pesto. Basil and pine nuts are not the only pesto there is.
Pesto.... people seem to believe that basil pesto is all there is. it can be made with anything that tastes good when you pulverize it. So if you're worried about your basil turning black when you cook it, then crush something that tends not to do that. Celery pesto is not uncommon...just one example. For pizza I crush something spicy in there.
the french man in me wants to try to make a tapenade pizza right now.
Want to go really wild? Take a look at David Lebowitz dandelion pesto!
This post also answers somewhat to your search for french recipes in another thread, pcieluck. Lebowitz is an American living in Paris for quite a while. Makes one of the very best blogs about food that I know of. Very creative, very nice photography (wonder if the guy isn't family of photographer Anne Lebowitz).
Want to go really wild? Take a look at David Lebowitz dandelion pesto!
This post also answers somewhat to your search for french recipes in another thread, pcieluck. Lebowitz is an American living in Paris for quite a while. Makes one of the very best blogs about food that I know of. Very creative, very nice photography (wonder if the guy isn't family of photographer Anne Lebowitz).
I've made pesto pizza quite a few times using method #1 and a classic pesto. I use the pesto as you would a tomato sause in the more common pizza. One thing I found though is to use much less EVO in the pesto than you would normally because in the oven the oil separates out and forms a puddle, and a soggy crust.
I think I'll give method #2 a try next time though; that sounds like a good idea.
#1 is basically the way I do it. After I get my dough ready for toppings, I simply use the pesto in place of a mainara. Sometimes I tend to lay the cheese first, sauce and then other toppings then or I lay the sauce first, then the cheese and other toppings--that's the more traditional way. I used to serve this very pizza in my restaurant when I was in business. You do not have to worry too much about the cooking of the basil because it is considerably minced and in oil. Also, if it's under the cheese, that's even less of a concern...
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