Pesto Pine Nut Pizza

Rebecca Firth
May 7, 2019 (Updated January 30, 2021)
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Before I get into this Pesto Pine Nut Pizza (and how much I love alliteration), let’s just talk about pesto, shall we?

There is a lot of hub bub about grinding your homemade pesto in a mortar and pestle instead of using a food processor to sort the situation out quickly. I’m here to tell you it’s fine either way. This first method, I’m just going to be honest, takes some time and muscle. I first heard about the mortar and pestle method on Salt Fat Acid Heat (Netflix, watch it)…and the word pesto translates roughly ‘to pound, to crush’ or so the interwebs tell me. When you make pesto this way, you first grind the pine nuts and garlic into a paste. With a good mortar and pestle that has a rough textured mortar and a heavy pestle, this is easy business. But once you throw the basil into the mix the task becomes decidedly more arduous. I may have broken a sweat. A sprinkle of salt at this point helps to break up the leaves a bit but no mistaken, it’s work.

Here are the advantages and differences between the two. The M&P method (that we’ll call it from this moment forth) produces a chunkier, coarser textured pesto. All the different flavor bits are more pronounced and recognized when you taste the pesto. This makes it a bit of a flavor exploration when you bite into it, which is fun. Additionally clean up is a breeze. The latter method, using a food processor, is decidedly easier, non-traditional and produces a pesto that is smoother and more unified. You get all of the same flavor but not in bits. It’s more, dare I say, homogenized.

I think we should all try both methods. Mostly just to get a feel for what those before us went through to get a meal on the table. And it’s fun to taste the difference between compiling all of the same ingredients but employing different methods. If you have the time take the road less travelled. If not, don’t sweat it and make the damn pesto however you can.

For this Pesto Pine Nut Pizza, I wanted to go for a traditional pesto: pine nuts, basil, olive oil, parmesan, garlic, lemon and salt. You can swap out different nuts (walnuts are a common choice) or greens (I’ve seen kale and carrot top pesto), but keep the other ingredients the same.

Before We Get Started

DOUGH. For those of you that are used to my regular beer-crust pizza this is a wee different. I’ve started using more moisture in my pizza dough and I am LOVING the result. It used to be one beer in there, now we’re using one beer + some water. This will make your dough a bit stickier and difficult to deal with. When you are mixing the dough, it’s going to stick to the sides. If you’re using an electric stand mixer with the dough hook, you just need to persevere and eventually it will stop sticking to the sides and should only be sticking to the bottom. If it’s humid where you live then it will stick more and you’ll need to add in some additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. The longer this dough rests, the better it gets. You can make it in the morning and then let it sit out until the evening and then shape it. Again, if it’s really hot and humid where you live, you might need a different tack. This dough can be mixed, wrapped tightly and stashed in the fridge for days and it will just get better in terms of flavor and texture. I prefer it on day two or three of fridge time. If it’s hot and humid, you might want to try this or if you want same day pizza, just shorten that first rise until the dough has doubled. Additionally, this is great for when you want to mix your dough up on Wednesday and have it ready for Friday night. One last dough note… I discussed how high humidity impacts your dough and conversely so does low humidity. During the extended rest phase if the air is dry the top of your dough can develop a scab (so to speak). This is not great. When you put the dough in the bowl, turn it over to coat all of it in the olive oil. This can help. Covering it with a damp hand towel can help as well. One last tip: simmer some water on the stove to put some moisture in the air. …who knew I had this much to say about humidity?
BEER. I like to use mild beer for my pizza. Corona is one of my favorites…Budweiser. Don’t waste your money on something fancy. It’s not worth it. If you don’t want to use alcohol, then just substitute water 1:1.
PESTO. I noted above how to make the pesto with a M&P but stopped around the basil step. Once you get the leaves crushed, you mix in the oil and parm and it’s a piece of cake at this point. The instructions in the recipe will tell you how to use the food processor. If you don’t have a M&P nor a food processor, you can use a blender or you could even just finely chop everything and throw it all together.
TOPPINGS. I like to keep it simple: some more pine nuts (toasted), small tomatoes left whole and sometimes I’ll add in some lemon rind (or whole Meyer lemons thinly sliced…heaven. But this is your pizza, so build it how you want it. I’ve given some topping ideas below in the ingredients section, let your conscience be your guide.

Let’s get our Pesto Pine Nut Pizza on, shall we?