I'm bad - when I buy fresh herbs for a recipe and don't use them all they generally get tossed. I'm proud to say this week was different. Inspired by "Leftover Tuesday" , hosted by What's Cooking?, I created a recipe to use some recent leftover fresh herbs. I don't even remember what the parsley was leftover from but I found it sitting in a glass of water in the fridge. One the counter I had about a quarter of a bunch of basil left from a fresh mozzarella and tomato pizza I made for a friend earlier in the week. I knew immediately that I would make a pesto but since I didn't have enough of either the basil or the parsley it would have to be a "combo" pesto. The next question was what to do with the pesto. Examining my kitchen I found I also had a leftover tomato, some Cremini mushrooms, some mozzarella, some parmesan and even some pinenuts! Another easy choice - make a pizza. The only thing I was missing was the dough and while I wanted to make that myself the events of the day worked against me. It was 8pm on Friday and I was hungry. So, as I made the pesto and prepared the other toppings Husband went to our neighborhood market and got a pre-made crust. (Actually, smarty that he is, he returned with 2 cursts. Now the next time I need a pizza crust and don't have time to make one he won't have to go to the store!). To me, pizza is the perfect last minute meal. Even with the preparation of the pesto and the trip to the store the pizza was ready for the oven in about 20 minutes. The result was an amazing pizza that now has me craving pesto from the basil and parsley seedlings that I'm growing too bad they won’t be ready for a while… Basil-Parsley-Pesto-Combo Pizza - about 2 cups fresh basil and parsley (all basil, all parsley, or any combination will work).
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 2 T pinenuts
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 T olive oil, add more as needed to get proper consistency.
- 1 tomato thinly sliced.
- 8oz mozzarella, shredded
- about 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms
- 1 pizza crust
Heat oven, with pizza stone if you have one, to 500 degrees. Mix herbs through olive oil in food processor. Add more olive oil as needed to get a spreadable consistency. Sauté mushrooms on medium heat. Spread pesto on pizza crust. Top with shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle mushroom on top of mozzarella. Arrange tomato slices on top. Bake at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes. We enjoyed ours with a nice bottle of Merlot.
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