Best Ever Pizza

On Monday I was a mad scientist in the kitchen. I baked blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies, homemade pizza sauce, foccacia bread (for pizza crust), pesto, and the Best Pizza You'll Ever Eat in Your Life pizza. Since it was so delicious that I even used the adjective, "Orgasmically delicious", I thought I should pass along my recipes. They are from the Simply in Season cookbook.

First I made the pesto (p.162) with some minor variations

In a blender I chopped:
1 C fresh basil leaves and tender stems
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 C walnuts
3-6 T parmesan cheese
1/2 t salt
2 sprigs of parsley
with a splash of red wine vinegar
and a dash of cumin

Then I made the foccacia bread (p.88)

combine in a large bowl, stirring until yeast dissolves
1C warm water
1T active dry yeast

Mix in, stirring until smooth:
1 C whole wheat bread flour (I did 3/4 wh wheat, 1/4 white)
2T olive oil
1T sugar (I used about 1 T of honey and a little less olive oil)
1 1/2t salt

Add enough additional flour (1 3/4-2 1/4C) to make a stiff dough. Knead 8-10 minutes until elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn to grease both sides, cover with damp cloth and allow to rise until doubled (about 45 minutes).

Fold a handful of fresh basil leaves into the dough (snipped fine). Knead only as much as needed to distribute the leaves evenly. Cover and let dough rest 10 minutes. Pat and stretch to fill a greased 10"x15" jelly roll pan (I used a cookie sheet). Lightly rub top with olive oil, cover with damp cloth and let rise 10 more minutes. Add your toppings and bake in preheated oven at 450F until the crust is lightly brown (12-20 minutes). If bottom gets brown before top is done, finish under the broiler. Serve immediately.

I did have to finish my pizzas under the broiler because the bottoms were brown after only 10 minutes! For one of the pizzas I did a traditional marinara sauce and mozzarella. For the other I did a pesto sauce, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella and crumbled feta cheese. The Pesto Pizza was the best pizza I've ever had. Hands down. You've got to try this.