Pesto Kale Pizza

Someone on a forum I read wanted to know if they could put kale on a pizza which got me thinking about it. Then Animal Friendly Eric told me about a pizza that he had in LA from Native Foods that had greens and pesto on it. I looked it up on the web and it says "Creamy pesto, grilled veggies, steamed greens, roasted pumpkin seeds, and a balsamic drizzle". Well, I had to try that! So here it goes. This was more time consuming than expected because I forgot to take the frozen pizza dough out of the freezer and had to make a fresh batch, and because I also had to make some pesto. It was really good and we plan to make it again and again and again, esp once the zucchini from the CSA starts pouring in.



Breadmaker Pizza Crust (makes 2)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup warm water (plus more as needed)
2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 tsp kosher salt

Place ingredients in breadmaker according to manufacturer instructions and set it to Pizza Dough. Meanwhile preheat the pizza stone to 500 degrees. Pull out the dough, punch it down, cut it in half. Place half in an oiled ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer for another day. Roll out the dough some, let it rest for 10 minutes, and then roll it out some more.

I used Peter Berley's Almond Pesto recipe as a base but used all the CSA green garlic, garlic scapes, and added one clove of garlic. The original recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic instead of the mixture below.

Garlic Scape Green Garlic Almond Pesto
1 1/2 cups toasted blanched almonds
3 garlic scapes
4 green garlic bulbs and stems
1 clove garlic
2 cups packed basil leaves (or more)
3/4 to 1 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
salt to taste

Grind the almonds in a food processor. Add the various forms of garlic, lemon juice, water, lemon zest, basil and puree. Add the olive oil gradually. Add salt to taste. Place in a container and cover with a light film of olive oil. Store in the refrigerator.


Pesto Kale Pizza
1 bunch of kale, middle ribs removed, cut, steamed and salted
pesto
2 small zucchini, sliced in 1/4" slices, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and grilled in a grill basket
1/4 cup toasted salted pumkin seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
semolina

Preheat pizza stone in a 500 degree oven for about an hour. Roll out the pizza dough and place in on a peel with semolina to prevent sticking. Drizzle with olive oil and brush to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Add some pesto as a base layer. Mix the greens with some pesto and add it to the pizza. Top with zucchini slices and pumkin seeds. Drizzle on some balsamic vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes.