Make your own Basil Pesto Pizza from scratch

 

Making your pizza from scratch is not that hard. It might be time consuming but it is a nice activity for the family to do together.

Making the pizza dough

Ingredients:
4 Cups of all purpose flour
1 Sachet of dry yeast
1.5 Cup of lukewarm water
2 Teaspoons salt
1 Teaspoon sugar
Olive oil

Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and combine the lot. Note: if you had cut your finger minutes ago (like I did) your girlfriend might say things like "You fainted when you saw your own blood so maybe I should take over". I never fainted. I just laid down for a quick power nap on the kitchen floor.

I need the power nap because the next part takes some  effort if you don't have a mixer to combine everything. If you have a mixer switch the mixer on and while it is running add the water and two tablespoons olive oil. If you don't have a mixer you will have to do the mixing yourself which could be quite strenuous.

Mix until the dough comes together in a nice solid ball.

Note: if the dough is very sticky add more flour. If the dough is too dry add more water to the mix.

When the dough had formed a nice ball remove the dough from the mixer. Now it's time to put in some elbow grease. Knead the dough into a firm ball.

Grease a bowl with 2 teaspoons of olive oil put the dough in and cover with plastic wrap. Put the dough somewhere warm for approximately an hour. The dough should double in size during that time.

While waiting for the dough it is time to start with the Basil Pesto.

Basil Pesto

Ingredients
Two cups of fresh Basil leaves.
Quater of a cup walnuts or pinenuts.
Two thirds of a cup Olive oil.
Two cloves of garlic.
Half a cup of Pecorino chees.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the Basil leaves, walnuts, garlic in a food processor. Pulse until it's course. Add halve of the Olive Oil and season with salt and pepper. Pulse until a nice smooth paste is formed.

Now put the paste into a bowl and stir in the cheese.

Making the Pizza

Ingredients
Pizza dough (see entry above)
Basil Pesto (see entry above)
Tomato Paste
Mozzarella cheese
Dried Origanum
Fresh Parsley
Any Pizza toppings, we went with:
Salami
Avocado
Calamata Olives

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Once the dough is ready roll it out into an oven proof pan.  Spread the Tomato Paste across the dough.
Do the same with the Basil Pesto.

Spread the Mozzarello cheese evenly across the base and toss the rest of the ingredients on the Pizza.

Put the Pizza in the oven form +- 20 minutes.