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.
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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.
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.
Here are some tips for making this delicious pizza:
- A stand mixer helps. A LOT. We love our new Cuisinart stand mixer.
- 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!
- Baking the pizza quicker at a higher temperature provides the perfect crisp without drying the dough out.
- 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.
- Use the back of a spoon to spread the pesto. It helps to get a thin layer while protecting the dough from ripping.
- For oven-roasting the tomatoes it is best to slightly undercook them. They will continue to cook while on the pizza.
- 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!
Roasted Tomato, Mozzarella, and Pesto Flatbread Pizza
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 oz tomatoes (various sizes) sliced thin
- Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- Salt & pepper
- 250 grams pizza dough*
- 2 oz basil pesto*
- 6 oz fresh mozzarella sliced
- Parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Prepare the Roasted Tomatoes. Line a baking sheet with foil and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Arrange tomato slices on the baking sheet, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Once the roasted tomatoes are ready, set aside and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
- Lightly dust a 14-inch round pan with flour, then dust your hands with flour before handling the dough.* Gently stretch the dough into a roughly 12- to 14-inch circle. Work around the edges, rotating the dough as you go, and let gravity help you. Use more flour as needed to prevent sticking, and make sure to work slowly so you don't tear the dough – patience is key here!
- Spread pesto evenly onto the dough with the back of a spoon, leaving about a half-inch crust around the edge.
- Arrange slices of mozzarella cheese on top of the pizza, then top with roasted tomatoes. Finish with a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese.
- Bake the pizza at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until edges are crispy and cheese is bubbly.* Serve hot and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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