Recipe #20: Tomato-Basil Pizza

Recipe: Tomato-Basil Pizza
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr 20 minutes (if pizza crust is not made beforehand)
Ease: 4
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 5
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer 

Pioneer Woman's pizza crust, you might remember, was recipe #13 where it was used to make calzones.  Delicious, delightful calzones.  I remembered having some issues in the past with PW's pizza crust but the challenge required me to remake even recipes that I had made before, so I erased my mind of all preconceived notions towards this dough and pressed onward.

The issue I had before with the dough was that once you get a hole in the dough, you are pretty much stuck with that hole unless you gather it all back into a ball and try again.

That's a bit annoying.

After I cautiously dealt with this issue, I remembered the next problem I had--the dough doesn't exactly fit a baking sheet, even though I use the same exact kind that PW uses.  I stretched it out as much as I could, but after five or ten minutes of negotiating tray space with dough, I grew bored.

I suppose since this is a variation of PW's pizza she didn't think measurements were necessary.  Again, I live for measurements.  Also, she uses prepared pesto, so don't fault me for not making my own.

Although, admittedly, I have already faulted myself.

Once the dough has been pressed to a size you are happy with, the hardest part is over.

And the fun can begin!

Since PW didn't say whether or not to use the entire jar of pesto, or what size to use, I might have gotten a little carried away with the pesto as I smeared it all over the dough.

But then again, it's pesto.  Can you ever have too much?

Do you know why I think I really loved this pizza?

Because it is Christmas colored!

Are you ready?  Only 46 days left!

The key to great homemade pizza is an oven set at 500 degrees.  Any lower and the crust of the dough will start to burn without achieving the perfect crispness to the underside.

This pizza was absolutely perfect.  It's a nice change from a typical tomato sauce and cheese pizza.  The only issue I experienced was this:

I'm not sure if oil from the excessive amount of pesto I used splattered out and caused this, or if it was due to buffalo chicken bites that were crisping on the rack above the pizza.

Regardless, the flavor was not affected and the pizza, and my buffalo chicken bites, were fabulous.