When you have leftover zoodles and pesto, this is the obvious route to go. This happens to be one of my favorite pizzas EVER. It’s also a fan favorite in my house. My other half doesn’t even like pesto, in fact, he normally hates it, but this pizza has made even him a fleeting pesto fan. It’s so full of flavor and different textures that I don’t even notice the fact that there is no cheese (or vegan cheese substitute). I always keep balls of homemade whole-wheat pizza dough in my freezer. Whenever I make a batch of pizza dough, I usually quadruple the recipe and divide it into balls that I individually wrap in plastic wrap and then store in a plastic bag. It’s perfect because the dough doesn’t take too long to defrost, so whenever we’re in the mood for pizza I can just take a ball of dough out of the freezer and leave it on the counter for an hour or so while I preheat the oven and prepare a sauce and the toppings. If you do the same and make the pizza dough ahead, this is a very quick and easy recipe—just a few minutes worth of blending, chopping and arranging.
Ingredients:
For the crust: Use your favorite type of pizza dough, store bought or homemade. I use this whole-wheat recipe from Martha Stewart. http://www.marthastewart.com/316808/whole-wheat-pizza-dough.
For the pesto: (This amount of pesto will be enough for several pizzas. If you don’t use it all, you can store it in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.)
· Two cups of basil
· One cup of roasted salted cashews
· 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (depending on the size)
· The juice of one lemon
· Two tablespoons of olive oil (you can add more depending on desired consistency)
· A pinch of salt (don’t overdo it because of the salt in the cashews… You can always add more later)
· Half a teaspoon of ground black pepper
Toppings:
· Spiralized Zucchini (If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can just cut the zucchini in thin ribbons—a julienne slice.)
· Grilled artichoke hearts (I used the already grilled artichoke hearts from Whole Foods. They can be found in the produce section in a plastic bag.)
· Sun dried tomatoes
· Kalamata olives
· Capers
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place all of the pesto ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and combined.
3. Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface and place on pizza pan.*
4. Spread pesto onto the crust (I like to use a generous amount, but I’m a pesto fanatic).
5. Chop the sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and kalamata olives (you can leave them whole, but I like to chop them up so that I get a taste of all the deliciousness in every bite).
6. Arrange the toppings onto the pizza.
7. Bake pizza for approximately 20 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.
8. Slice your pizza and enjoy!
*Tip: I usually drizzle my pizza pan with olive oil and then sprinkle some corn meal over that. This helps to slightly raise the pizza off the pan so it won’t get soggy and also adds a nice crunchy texture to the bottom of the crust.
