Roasted Tomato, Mozzarella, and Pesto Flatbread Pizza

Last updated December 18th, 2024

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This pesto flatbread pizza recipe topped with juicy oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella is an Italian treat for your tastebuds, inspired by the classic Caprese.

Roasted tomato mozzarella and pesto pizza.

I know you’re probably thinking “wait, this isn’t a burger” and you’d be right. This is a pizza. New year, new food of the month! In 2022 Nicole and I will be sharing with you a new pizza recipe every month as we learn and grow in the art of pizza-making.

Pizza is amazing, we absolutely love pizza in all of its shapes, sizes, and flavors. We have been wanting to make more pizza recipes and are working on creating homemade doughs and sauces. However, what pushed us to make pizza our 2022 food of the month was one simple Christmas gift: Mastering Pizza

This cookbook is super exciting and has already greatly improved our pizza-making skills. Just the other week we made one of the best pizza doughs either of us have ever had. And we’ve had a lot of pizza.

So we hope that you will enjoy this pizza-making journey with us and follow along with each recipe so that we can learn a little something together every month. 

A pizza with roasted tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella.

January starts off with a pretty simple pizza, or almost flatbread, inspired by one of our favorite Italian sandwiches: the caprese.

In order to mimic this delicious sandwich, we started off with a batch of classic pizza dough from Ooni, stretched really thin to get a super crispy crust just like a good caprese starts with a toasted roll. Then for our sauce we used a thin layer of basil pesto, and topped our pizza with fresh mozzarella slices and homemade oven-roasted tomatoes. Super simple yet extremely flavorful, just like the sandwich.

A roasted tomato and pesto pizza.

Here are some tips for making this delicious pizza:

  1. A stand mixer helps. A LOT. We love our new Cuisinart stand mixer.
  2. As this is pretty much a flatbread, it is important to get the right thickness for your dough. When stretching the dough, it should be pretty transparent, however be careful not to rip any holes in it!
  3. Baking the pizza quicker at a higher temperature provides the perfect crisp without drying the dough out.
  4. While it is possible to use too much flour on the pan and when stretching the dough, having to rip your pizza off the baking sheet after cooking and potentially damaging your beautifully handcrafted pizza is far worse.
  5. Use the back of a spoon to spread the pesto. It helps to get a thin layer while protecting the dough from ripping.
  6. For oven-roasting the tomatoes it is best to slightly undercook them. They will continue to cook while on the pizza. 
  7. Cooking for a little longer than you might expect is a good thing. The crust browning and getting crispier provides both the right texture and flavor. It also helps to support the pizza while eating!

Making pizza can be slightly intimidating, which is kind of surprising for a dish classically made up of just three ingredients. However that means each ingredient needs to be just about perfect or else it will be painfully obvious. The most intimidating factor for most people tends to be making a good dough. While we hope you will try making your own with us, and we hope our tips and instructions will aid in your journey, it is always acceptable to buy premade dough from a store. Nicole and I will regularly get pizza dough from Whole Foods as it is truly a great recipe and also makes pizza night super easy. 

So no matter how you choose to make your own pizza, we hope that you will take this wonderful journey with us and share your experiences, tips, and tricks with us too! 

Here’s to a year full of pizza!

Pesto pizza with roasted tomatoes and mozzarella.

To browse more of our latest recipes and seasonal dishes, visit our homepage here.

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Roasted tomato mozzarella and pesto pizza.

Roasted Tomato, Mozzarella, and Pesto Flatbread Pizza

Alex
This pesto flatbread pizza recipe topped with juicy oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella is an Italian treat for your tastebuds, inspired by the classic Caprese.
No ratings yet
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Servings 6 slices
Calories 353 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 5 ounces cherry tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 425 grams pizza dough
  • 3 ounces basil pesto
  • 8 ounces fresh mozzarella sliced
  • Parmesan cheese grated

Instructions
 

  • First, roast the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, whole, to a small baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, then roast under the broiler on low (~425 degrees F) until blistered and lightly charred, about 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Switch the broiler off and preheat the oven to 525 degrees F. Oil and flour a 14-inch pizza pan, then flour your hands and stretch the dough into a roughly 12 to 14 inch circle to fit the pan.
  • Now, top the pizza. Spread the pesto evenly over the dough, leaving about a quarter inch crust around the edges. Top with sliced mozzarella.
    Gently smush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to release some of their juices, then top the pizza with them, making sure to get some of the juices onto the pizza (but not all – see Notes section for details).
    Finish with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
  • Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly, about 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot and enjoy!

Notes

Pizza dough: We like to make pizza dough from scratch using the same day pizza dough recipe from Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Salt Yeast cookbook. But you can also use store bought!
Pizza pan: If you don’t own a round pizza pan, we can recommend this 14″ round pizza pan from Wilton. It’s budget-friendly and crisps up the pizza nicely without sticking.
Roasted tomatoes: Make sure to gently smush the tomatoes before they go on the pizza, and leave some of the juices off the pizza so it doesn’t become too wet. Excess juice on top of the pizza will burn off as it bakes.
Baking tips: In general, bake pizza in the middle of your oven (move your oven racks if needed) to ensure even cooking. If you are baking two pizzas at once on separate racks, space the racks evenly in the oven and just switch the pizzas about halfway through. Pizza can also be finicky and cooks at different rates depending on the hydration level of your dough, your oven’s actual temperature, and other factors. We recommend keeping an eye on your pizza as it cooks and using visual cues to tell when it’s done – use our time estimates as a rough guide.

Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 353kcalCarbohydrates: 37gProtein: 15gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 891mgPotassium: 80mgFiber: 1gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 657IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 216mgIron: 2mg
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Keyword basil pesto, fresh mozzarella, pizza, pizza dough, roasted tomatoes, spring

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.

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