Kale Pesto Margarita Pizza

 

both beautiful images via here

homemade pizza fridays have become somewhat of a tradition in my house. we look forward to it all week and often pair our tradition with a nice glass of vino! i personally really love pizza, and doing this has allowed us to play around with different combinations of seasonal toppings. here is one of our favourites that we can't get enough of right now. as you know, we participate in a CSA farm box, so once a week on Friday's we get tasty local produce delivered to our doorstep (nothing is better than groceries appearing for you!). This time of year we are seeing a lot of kale, so one of our favourite friday pizza's to make is our Kale Pesto Margarita!

The Dough:

• 3 cups all purpose flour (or 2 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 package of yeast 

combine your yeast and water in a small bowl and allow the yeast to activate and bubble for about 10 mins. while that is activating mix all your dry ingredients together in a big bowl. when the yeast is ready pour it into your dry mixture. now mix everything together with your hands and then roll it out onto a floured countertop. knead the dough until it comes out smooth and with a good elastic feel. when it's ready, place it in an oiled bowl and cover with a towel until it has doubled (about an hour). punch it down and let it rest for about 10 more minutes before it's ready to be rolled out and toppings applied. 

The Pesto Sauce Base:

• 2 cups freshly washed and de-stemed kale
• 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 glugs of extra virgin olive oil

if you have a food chopper or food processor this is the perfect time to bust that out. pesto is really the easiest thing to make, just throw in all your ingredients and blend, baby, blend. if you feel it is a little too thick you can add a little extra olive oil. if you find you don't use all the pesto for the pizza, you can keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks in an air tight container. 

Toppings:

• sliced tomatoes
• thinly sliced mozzarella
• fresh basil

preheat your oven to 400 degrees. roll out your dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, or pizza stone (which i very highly recommend for a nice evenly cooked crust).  now cover your rolled out dough with a nice amount of pesto sauce base. next add your toppings, in this case tomato and mozzarella. Helpful Hint - I don't bake the basil on the pizza otherwise, i find it looses it's great fresh flavour and beautiful texture. bake your ready to go pizza for about 10-15 mins until the crust is nicely browned. take it out, drizzle with fresh olive oil – you can even add a little balsamic glaze – and top with some fresh basil leaves.

enjoy! xoxo.