Put the Pesto on the Pizza or the Basil Gets It
“Pizza is but a canvas to paint your hunger. A blank sheet for your stomach to express its dreams, desires, and true intentions”
-Ancient Pizza Philosopher
When I venture outside the house for pizza, I almost always stick to the plain-and-simple pizza. A bit of cheese, dough, and sauce. That’s all I request from the pizzerias. I’ve yet to get tired of that trifecta.
But in my home, my experimental pizza lab, I like to push the boundaries of what a pizza can be. Perhaps a pizza is all of a sudden covered in BBQ sauce and chickpeas? Or it’s been assaulted by cheddar cheese or baked ziti? Dressing up pizza in these various flavor-costumes is about as close as I’ve gotten to parenting. By the looks of things, there’s a very high percentage I’d eat my child. My delicious cheesy child.
The other night I got a hankering to make some pesto. Pizza wasn’t part of the original plan, but like the best laid plans of mice and men you’re going to end up incorporating pizza. I went down to my local market to find the core pesto ingredients. And here they are safely contained in a blender. Like a tiny zoo for herbs and spices.
All the pesto ingredients you’d ever need. See if you can spot them all:
- Basil
- Chinese Pine Nuts (cheap and effective knockoff variety)
- Olive Oil
- Garlic
- Parmesan Cheese
Slaughter Mix them all up and you have your pesto. It’s incredibly simple. So simple you’ll want to travel back in time and stop yourself from every buying the absurdly overpriced pesto in a jar.
You can do anything with pesto! Like put it on a pizza. It behaves like most other sauces except for one key difference—the oil in the pesto will turn your crust a nice golden brown. This is good and bad. It can be a bit deceptive while cooking, but your crust will never be more savory.
Here’s a bonus photo of some eggs and toast I made with my leftover pesto.
