Pizza with homemade pesto and fresh tomatoes

One of the nicest things about having a blog, if you're me, is not having to remember things like which pizza dough recipe I like to use. I can just search the blog, find this post and get on with things.

I went to the greenmarket yesterday at lunchtime, planning to get some tomatoes and a little basil to use with pasta or on a pizza and some peaches and plums. I bought a couple of peaches from the greengrocer the other day and they were so gross, I don't have words for it — what flavor there was was almost bitter, in sharp contrast to the farm-fresh peaches I've been buying, which taste like love and happiness and joy and the way puppy ears feel. So I'm thinking I'd better eat a lot of peaches now because I won't bother again until next summer. I know there are good recipes out there for peach crisp and peach cakes and other peach recipes, but I can't get past just slicing them up and eating them right off the cutting board.

The greenmarket near my office is pretty small, just five or six stands with produce and a couple of bread guys. I didn't see basil at all in any of the first couple I checked out and was starting to get nervous, then saw a sign reading "Basil: $2.50." This seemed positively larcenous for this time of year until I picked up one of the bundles. They had to put it in a garbage bag for me to carry it. I'm not sure the picture really gets across just how freaking much basil there was. These are all of the ingredients you need, except salt.


Once I pulled all the leaves off, I had to wash them in the salad spinner in four batches. Each batch was maybe three cups (tightly packed) of leaves.

With that much basil, there was only one thing to do: make pesto. I used this recipe, which is very good and would have come together much faster if I had a food processor and wasn't trying to grind everything up in my aging blender. But no matter. I put a batch of dough together as soon as I got home and made the pesto while it rose. Then I spread the dough out, smeared it with some pesto, laid on some fresh tomato slices and topped it off with shredded fresh mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil.

In the oven:

And on the plate:

Delicious. I still have about nine cups of basil left so I'll make a few more batches of pesto and follow Elise's directions for freezing it. I've always wanted to be one of those people who made pesto from scratch and then froze it to have onhand and now I will be.

I did manage to stock up on peaches and get these gorgeous plums while dragging around that shrubbery. I've never had a greengage plum. It sounds like such a British thing to eat: "Say, Nigel, why don't you knock me up and have some of those smashing greengage plums? Pip, pip!" "Right-o, old boy. Cheerio!"

My experience with British slang might be mostly from WWII-era children's books.

Comments

[Marcy]

OMG, pesto pizza? That must be the bestest tasting thing on the planet! moannnnnnn

[Juno]

Rumer Godden? .

[Sarah]

Positively perfect! Pizza, pesto, plums!

[D]

best pizza ever. I actually got to taste this masterpiece.

[Becky]

Oh, Yum! I planned to make a mini batch of pesto last night -- unfortunately, my basil had frozen in my kooky fridge. I must go get some more basil. Pip, pip.

[Gina]

That's quite a lovely farm market haul! The pizza looks scrumptious.

[carolyn]

man that looks delish. except i would need an extra cup or so of sauce on mine. :)