At least once a week I try to make pizza for dinner. It is a fairly simple meal that everyone can agree on. The combinations are endless too. It doesn’t need to be the same old red sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni pizza each time. Get creative! If you can put it on bread it can go on a pizza. I opened the refrigerator and looked to see what we had to put on a pizza. Genoa salami? Ricotta? Spinach? Ooo, fresh mozzarella!
So, I decided to go simple with Ricotta, Pesto, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan.
Verdict:
Even my ricotta hating son liked this pizza. It had enough flavor with the pesto and cheeses that he added a bit more pesto and was thrilled with it. Still didn’t care for the texture of the ricotta but he ate it. It was a good dish because it was so simple to make. I used jarred pesto but you could easily make and use homemade if you wish.
I served this with a green side salad.
Ricotta and Pesto Pizza
Ingredients:
- 1 (1 lb) ball of pizza dough
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 (6 oz) ball of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 1/2-2/3 cup basil pesto
- 3 cloves garlic, minced or sliced
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Form your pizza dough into a large 16″-18″ circle on a pizza stone or place on a greased rimmed baking sheet. Make sure to make a raised edge to keep your toppings on your pizza.
- In a small bowl mix ricotta, garlic powder, and basil until well blended. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- In a small skillet over medium heat lightly brown the garlic in the olive oil. Remove from heat once it starts to turn golden at the edges.
- Using a teaspoon dot the ricotta cheese mixture over the top of the pizza. Lightly spread and press it down into the crust. You want to leave space between the dots of ricotta not cover the whole top.
- Next, in the empty spots dot pesto with a teaspoon. Again, you don’t want to cover the entire pizza but have enough that you will get some of the pesto in each bite.
- Lay the freshly sliced mozzarella in any remaining bare spots to cover the bottom of the pizza. Sprinkle the browned garlic over the pizza. Finally sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese over the top of the pizza.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until bottom of pizza is golden brown and top is starting to lightly brown.
- Remove pizza from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with extra pesto for drizzling if desired.
What's for Dinner Moms? 
My mom, back in the Fifties, would roll out biscuit dough from the canned biscuits, used tomato paste, oregano, sausage and parmesan cheese. They were little pizzas that children liked. Easy to make and we loved them. Of course I was 8 at the time.
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My mom would do something similar for us in the 80s. I never understood Mozzarella cheese until I was in college!
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“Parmesan” cheese came in that green shaker can from Kraft. What else did you need?
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To this day my family calls it green cheese.
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True.
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Interestingly I was contemplating making pizza.
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We love pizza. Simple and tasty!
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My all time favorite pizza is an Italian verson. Prochiutto, Mozarella and Pesto. Oh Gosh now I am hungry.
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I am thinking of trying an Antipasti pizza soon. Yours sounds yummy. Prosciutto is hard to find around here.
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Best and cheapest prosciutto is at Aldi. As for pesto..make it yourself, try the red pesto. Yummy
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I will look there. Our Ali is tiny and does not have many items a “normal” Ali may have. I should look in Kalamazoo next time I am there!
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Aldi is an European grocery store (I grew up with it). They also own Trader Joe’s, they have some good stuff there now, you will be surprised.
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Yum!!!
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Reblogged this on Blog of a Mad Black Woman.
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Thank you so very much!
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You’re welcome! Looks soooo good!
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Thank you again. It really was yummy.
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Looks so delicious!
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Thank you so veryuch, Lynn!
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xxxx
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Oh my, this looks amazing!
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Thank you!
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Dam that looks
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I love the pesto and ricotta in this! We made a pizza on Saturday from Trader Joe’s refrigerated pizza dough, (half the dough) and plan on using the rest up tomorrow night before it expires. We’ve got salami, mozzarella, TJ marinara, black olives, and green onions to choose from. 🙂
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Yummm. I am thinking an Antipasti pizza is coming soon.
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Ooh that will be yummy!
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Looks wonderful. I used to make pizzas for a extra money when I was a lowly paid Teaching assistant, it was my favorite part time job.
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Thank you! Nice job. My favorite job was designing store layouts back in college. It was so much fun to me.
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That does sound like fun. All this reminiscing has made me want pizza.
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This looks amazing! Wish I could have it for lunch.
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Thank you!
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Looks yumm….
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Thank you!
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Reblogged this on cookinglocalnh and commented:
Doesn’t this just look delicious?
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Thank you so very much!
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It looked wonderful…happy to do that.
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