Pesto Pizza with Pine nuts and Feta
Preheat Pizza Stone in 400° oven Roll out prepared pizza dough and place on preheated pizza stone. (I don't have a pizza stone, so I just preheat my oven, and then sprinkle my pizza pan with corn meal before I put the dough on.)Top pizza dough with the following ingredients in order:
1) Pesto - You can use store bought, or make your own, which is actually really easy and tastes better. Below is a the pesto recipe I use when I can get basil cheap, like from a farmers market. (LIBERALLY spread pesto over the pizza, so you can’t see the dough through it, and up on top the edges so the crusts will have pesto on them as well.)
2) Feta cheese (about 4 oz)
3) Red onion slivers (about 1/3 onion -I like lots of red onion and tomatoes)
4) Chicken pieces (about 1 1/2 Grilled Lemon marinated breasts, diced and cooked) - recipe follows
5) Tomato slices (1-2 tomatoes, bite-sized slices)
6) Mozzarella cheese (to your liking)
7) Pine nuts (sprinkle over top)
Bake in 400° oven for 18-20 minutes.
Pesto - This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe. It is super good, and super easy.
¼ c. walnuts
¼ c. pignolis
3 T. diced garlic (9 cloves)
5 c. fresh basil leaves, packed
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ c. good olive oil
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Place the walnuts, pignolis, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 30 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is finely pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Serve, or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top. Makes 4 cups.
*If I am able to get a lot of basil then I will make a bunch of pesto and freeze it in oiled ice cube trays. After it freezes, just remove the pesto cubes and store in Zip-lock bags. Its great on pasta too.
Grilled Lemon Chicken
Juice of one lemon (~3 Tb lemon juice)
3 Tb oil
1 tsp minced garlic (~ 2 medium-large cloves)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp oregano
1 lb chicken breasts
Marinate chicken overnight. If I'm using this for a pizza or salad, I dice the raw chicken and marinate it that way. If it's diced it has more surface area to marinate and then you can get away with only marinating it for 8 or so hours. You can grill this indoors or outdoors, or you may use a skillet.
