vorace.: Pesto Pizza

First things first: how do you like my new look?! My friend and fellow food blogger over at Fifty Shades of Cake, hooked me up with some instructions on fancying up my blog design. I have more work to do, but I think it's a good start. I hope you like it!

Now on to more important things: the food!

I was totally inspired to make a blog recipe for dinner when I got a text message from my friend/pseudo step-sis letting me know that she had made one of my recipes for dinner (love that!).

Here it is btw:

How amazing does that look?! She said she added hot Italian sausage to one for her hubby and shrimp to hers. Brills!

So for today, this recipe is a play on an old favorite of mine. I gave my mom a cookbook for Mother's Day when I was in high school and shortly thereafter, we decided to go through it to look for a recipe to make together. We came across this interesting pizza recipe. I say it was interesting because it didn't have any red sauce and it basically had salad on top of it. Back in the late 90s and in my little teenage brain, that was a weird recipe for pizza! But we took a chance and made it anyway and it was fantastic! That recipe called for arugula, but again - late 90s, we lived in a small town, and the local grocery store didn't carry arugula, so we substituted it for baby spinach. This memory and the fact that we used spinach sparked today's recipe.

It's been super rainy lately in the northern Virginia area so I was craving something homemade, light, and spring-y to kind of perk up the dreariness. This recipe popped into my head, but I wanted to make it my own. I initially had the idea to do an arugula pesto as the sauce, but Teeter was out of baby arugula (major bummer!), so I decided to go with a regular basil pesto. (If you want to try the arugula pesto, please do! All of the measurements would be the same.) I kept our spinach substitute and the lemon dressing from the original recipe, but added some feta. You can never go wrong with adding feta!

The recipe seems kind of involved by the looks of it, but trust me, it isn't. It's so easy and quick, you will definitely want to keep this one in the arsenal for a light yet satisfying meal to whip up when you're in a time crunch.

Let's get cookin'!

Spinach & Feta Pesto Pizza
Servings: 2
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Pesto
1 1/2 cups of basil leaves
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil - though I used just shy of the entire 1/4 cup

Start by toasting the pine nuts. Place a nonstick skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add the nuts to the pan.

Toast the nuts for ten minutes, stirring frequently so that they don't burn.

Remove the nuts from the pan and pour them onto a plate. Let them cool for five minutes.

To make the pesto, add the basil, pine nuts, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese to a food processor or blender. Turn the blender on and keep it going until everything has been chopped really small and is blended together.

Drizzle the EVOO into the food processor/blender until the mixture becomes a smooth, thick dressing like texture.

Set aside until you're ready to put together the pizza.

Lemon Dressing
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

Add the lemon juice and pepper to a small bowl. Slowly drizzle the EVOO into the juice while whisking. Whisk until it becomes a thick dressing.

Set aside until you are ready to dress the spinach.

Pizza
1 pre-made thin pizza crust (or you can make your own!)
1/2 cup pre-made pesto (recipe above)
1/4 teaspoon FCBP
1 pinch sea salt
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
2 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons lemon dressing

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the pizza crust on a large cutting board. Use a spatula to spread the pesto around the surface of the pizza crust, making sure to not go all the way to the edge.

Sprinkle the 1/4 teaspoon of FCBP and the pinch of salt evening over the pesto.

Next, spread the feta crumbles all over the pizza crust.

Place the pizza in the oven, directly on the rack. Let cook for ten minutes

Within the last few minutes of the pizza cooking, toss the spinach with the lemon dressing. To get the dressing evenly coated over all of the spinach, I put the spinach into a food storage container, drizzled the dressing over the leaves, place the lid tightly on, then shake the container vigorously for ten seconds or so.

Remove the lid and set aside.

Once the pizza is done cooking, remove it from the oven and place it on a cutting board.

Use a fork to add the spinach to the top of the pizza. Make sure to spread the leaves evenly over the surface.

Before you cut it, let everything sit there for a few minutes. This will give time for the pizza crust to harden up a bit, as well as for the spinach leaves to soften and wilt slightly.

Now you can cut! I always use a regular butcher knife to cut my pizza, rather than the traditional pizza cutter/roller. I hate when the roller drags the toppings and cheese along with it. The knife is less messy.

Cut it into as many slices as you like. I did eight.