Green Pizza
We LOVE pizza in our house. So much so that every Tuesday is pizza night here. Everyone gets excited about it, even me – little miss “I love variety and hate repeating meals often”. Years down the line, we still use our favourite wholegrain pizza recipe, although since discovering that I am wheat intolerant we swap out the flour for spelt flour. It’s delicious.
And it helps that the kids love making the pizza as much as eating it. It’s my night off from cooking. I make the dough earlier in the dough and leave it to rise, then the kids and my husband do all of the rolling, topping (at least with the bits my son doesn’t shovel into his mouth while making it) and prepping. So we all love this night.
But sometimes our toppings get a little mundane. Tuesday is usually when we get our fruit & veg box delivered and stock up on food for the week ahead. As a result, my meal plan starts on a Wednesday. So when pizza night rolls around, we are often scrounging leftovers from the fridge, using up the leftover (slightly unhappy-looking) vegetables, any cooked meat we may be lucky enough to still have in there (most of the time the pizza ends up veggie), and the odds and ends of whatever cheeses we used that week. I usually have some frozen sweetcorn and sliced peppers the kids can chuck on, and there’s always a half jar of olives we can add. There’s always some mozzarella we’ve kept back, and if we are lucky, the new veg box has some more perky, fresh veg we can use without having to prep it.
Still, some weeks, if there is a little extra wiggle room in grocery budget, I like to splurge on a couple of fresh, more exciting pizza toppings.
This pizza was the amazing result of one of those times. When we run out of passata, 7-veg sauce or chopped tomatoes before pizza night, I usually reach for the freezer stash of pesto (stocked with easy basil pesto and my favourite parsley pesto among others). It makes an excellent sauce for pizza. This time I happened to have a big bag of frozen peas, and I’d splurged on Parma ham (prosciutto) to make the pizzas a little more exciting. We had courgettes on hand, but if I’d gone all out, I probably would have used asparagus. Half a bag of fresh spinach and a jar of green olives led to a delicious pizza we thoroughly enjoyed. It made such a refreshing break from: tomato sauce, peppers, sweetcorn, olives, and had a grown up feel but sweet, salty flavour everyone could enjoy.
Next time, I think I’ll add in an extra little splurge on some mascarpone to add a layer of creaminess that will undoubtedly make it even more indulgent and tasty!
A delicious springtime pizza packed with green vegetables that taste sweet & salty and delicious! A perfect more indulgent addition to a pizza night that everyone will want a slice of.
- 1 quantity good-quality pizza dough (ideally homemade and wholegrain – see notes for my easy one*)
- 4 tablespoons good-quality pesto (ideally homemade to avoid vegetable oils and get the best flavour – see notes for my 30-second parsley pesto or easy basil one**)
- 1 (125g) ball fresh mozzarella, roughly torn
- a few handfuls of frozen peas
- a handful of pitted green olives
- 1/2 small courgette, thinly sliced (or use 1/2 bunch asparagus tips)
- a generous handful of fresh spinach leaves
- a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
- a few fresh basil leaves, to serve
- a few slices of Parma ham (prosciutto), to serve (leave out for vegetarian pizza – try subbing with mascarpone if you want more indulgence)
- a bag of rocket leaves, to serve
-
Preheat the oven to as high as it will go (usually around 240C/475F/gas 9). Roll out your pizza dough large and very thin and lay on a pizza tray or baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread with the pesto, leaving a small gap all the way around the edge. Layer the pizza with the toppings (except the basil, ham and rocket), spreading out evenly, then drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and place in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is hard and catching slightly, and the toppings are bubbling and golden in places. Allow to cool slightly for a minute, then add the basil leaves and ham and serve with the rocket.
*find my easy pizza base recipe here
**find my basic parsley pesto recipe here and my simple basil one here
Take this recipe a step further by adding some blue cheese or mascarpone in dollops across the pizza, and drizzle the rocket with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Parmesan shavings. Elegant and even more delicious!
