Basil and Garlic Pesto Pizza

 

Leslie Beribeault of Napa, California. Leslie and Alan Beribeault repeated trips to Tuscany

 have ruined them for life. Pizza must be thin crust and very Italian. This is a great pizza to go with a salad.

Set pizza stone on lowest shelf of the oven, remove other rack. Preheat oven to 500 F for 1 hour. (To use your outdoor grill as an effective pizza oven, see recipe for sourdough pizza dough.)

Pesto
1 Large bunch of basil (large handful) 4-5 cloves of garlic (or more)
1⁄2 cup on pine nuts
1⁄2 cup grated Asiago cheese
1⁄2 cup Olive oil

Salt to taste

Pepper

Pizza

Pizza dough (see recipe) rolled very thin on a piece of parchment paper larger than the pizza.

Slices of provolone cheese

Combine and process pesto ingredients into a paste in the Cuisinar. If not using right away, cover and refrigerate. Spread silver dollar coin size circles of pesto on pizza dough. Leave room for sev- eral round slices of provolone cheese on the top. I leave about an inch between the round of pro- volone and the rounds of pesto.

Trim parchment paper to just slightly larger (1/2’) than pizza as if left too long it may burn at the edges. Transfer pizza using a double wall cookie sheet as a batten and its parchment paper to baking stone on floor of gas oven or bottom rack of an electric oven.

Bake the pizza until crisp 7~8 minutes.