Pesto Pizza with Purple Peppers & Heirloom Tomato
So the other day I stopped at my favorite farm in the area, Volante Farm, for some local blueberries.
As I strolled down the aisles looking at local giant okra and bunches of fresh lettuce, I stumbled upon my all-time favorite pesto from my all-time favorite restaurant in the area, Sweet Basil.
If you don't know of Sweet Basil then you might want to learn - it's the most magical place! Instead of bread and butter when you sit down, you get bread and fresh house made pesto. And this pesto is nothing like what you can imagine - it's nut free, with fresh Romano, basil, spinach, garlic and really good olive oil.
I actually brought it home and had spoonfuls of it just standing in my kitchen - it wasn't embarrassing at all.
I also picked up the coolest looking pepper...a purple pepper!
I'd never had a purple pepper but was so intrigued by the color! I have had purple cauliflower before and it was just like the regular kind, so I figured it might be cool to try something new again.
The pepper ended up being the best purchase I could have made - it was sweet, tender and went so well with the pesto.
I also grabbed a gorgeous heirloom tomato which is just the perfect pairing for pesto anyways.
OK, so after all that excitement and randomly buying the pesto, I realized I had nothing to use it with! I'm a little tired of the usual pasta with pesto so I decided to look elsewhere...in my fridge.
I had a thin crust whole wheat pizza from Whole Foods in the fridge and a big block of mozzarella cheese in the drawer, so put two and two together and we have Pesto Pizza with Purple Peppers & Heirloom Tomato.
Delicious! Who needs tomato sauce on pizza when there's pesto?!
Tip for cooking this: Cook the pizza in the oven without the tomatoes. Not only are the tomatoes perfect cold, it also helps to minimize the amount of moisture and juices that spread on the pizza so you don't get a soggy crust.
- 1 whole wheat thin pizza crust - I use the Organic Whole Foods brand
- 1/4 cup fresh basil pesto of your choice
- 1 small bell pepper - I used a purple pepper which you can find at specialty farmers markets, however a red bell pepper would do just fine too
- 1 heirloom tomato, sliced in to thin slices - I only used half the tomato for the pizza
- 3/4 cup shredded fresh mozzarella
- olive oil
- Follow preheat directions for pizza crust and set the oven.
- Drizzle a little olive oil over the crust and spread to cover the entire crust (it will help the crust to crisp up perfectly), then spread the pesto with a spoon or rubber spatula, then sprinkle the cheese over the top.
- Slice the pepper into thin pieces then cover the pizza with them.
- Cook the pizza in the oven for the recommended time - keep an eye on the pizza though, I stopped cooking mine 5 minutes before it was supposed to be done, otherwise it would have burned.
- Layer the pizza with the tomatoes, let it cool 5 minutes then enjoy!
