Over the pandemic, I quietly broke up with every pizza dough recipe I’ve shared to date. I know I have some nerve only telling you this now. The family wanted pizza for dinner weekly, and I was overdue for a homemade pizza reckoning. Why? Because after years of trying to get my home oven even half as hot as the ones at pizzerias that crank out gloriously blistered and glistening pies, and too often ending up with disappointing textures, I finally realized I was chasing the wrong pizza dream. Instead of fighting an uphill battle, I replaced my usual pizza dough with a no-knead focaccia-ish dough that bakes up beautifully in a regular oven, perfectly every single time.
The crust is tender and stretchy with deeply golden and crisp olive oil edges. A longer bake time allows the toppings to brown and blister without burning the whole pizza. Plus, it holds toppings, even a generous amount of toppings, like a charm, without them collapsing the dough or causing watery puddles. From here the fun began with everything from the The Angry Grandma (Pizza) in Smitten Kitchen Keepers, my third cookbook, to this.
A couple weeks ago, I spotted a gorgeous spinach and artichoke pizza with spinach pesto, artichoke hearts, and a blistered and blissful amount of cheese on Notfolu’s Instagram [oh and please don’t miss her snacks newsletter either] and could think about nothing else until I made it myself. Like previous times when I’ve been enthralled enough by a photo enough to chase it, I didn’t have a recipe to work from, I just played around until I made a pizza that tasted as good as the photo looked to me. I love the classic spinach and artichoke combination, but even more so when it’s not swallowed up by a vat of cream and cheese — here, you can actually taste the vegetables too. But nothing could have prepared me for my son choosing it over the classic tomato-cheese pie I also made, and declaring that “if Joe’s had this by the slice, I’d get it every time.” Joe, call me!
Previously
6 months ago: Simple Eggplant Parmesan
1 year ago: Carrot Cake with Coconut and Dates
2 years ago: Lemon Cream Meringues
3 years ago: Lemon Potatoes
4 years ago: Ultimate Banana Bread
5 year ago: Essential French Onion Soup
6 years ago: Asparagus and Egg Salad with Walnuts and Mint
7 years ago: Cornbread Waffles and Mushroom Tartines
8 years ago: Sesame Soba and Ribboned Omelet Salad and Apricot Hazelnut Brown Butter Hamantaschen
9 years ago: The Consolation Prize (A Mocktail) and Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips and Yogurt
10 years ago: Whole-Grain Cinnamon Swirl Bread
11 years ago: Lentil and Chickpea Salad with Feta and Tahini
12 years ago: Soft Eggs with Buttery Herb-Gruyere Toast Soldiers
13 years ago: Spaetzle
14 years ago: Irish Soda Bread Scones and Spinach and Chickpeas
15 years ago: Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Strawberry Sauce and Bialys
16 years ago: Caramel Walnut Banana Upside Down Cake and Swiss Easter Rice Tart
17 years ago: Mixed Berry Pavlova
Spinach and Artichoke Pan Pizza
Note: I almost always double the dough and make two pizzas at once, because any leftovers reheat fantastically, but wrote this recipe for just one. You’ll have enough spinach pesto for two pizzas, however. I’ve spread extra on a thick slice of toasted sourdough and covered it with a cloud of microplane-d parmesan (like I had at Sailor a couple weeks ago).
- 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond brand kosher salt; use half of other brands)
- 1 cup lukewarm water (100° to 115°F)
- 1 tablespoon (15 grams) olive oil
- 2 thick or 3 thin scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 ounces (115 grams) spinach leaves, baby spinach is fine
- Red pepper flakes, to taste
- Olive oil
- 1 14-ounce can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and patted dry
- Zest and juice from half a lemon
- 6 ounces (170 grams) mozzarella, diced from a block or perlini (as shown here)
- 1/2 cup (45 grams) grated parmesan
- 1/2 cup (55 grams) grated fontina or asiago cheese
Dough
Spinach Pesto
Assembly
Assemble the pizza: Heat your oven to 450°F (230°C). Coat a 12-inch (30-cm) round cast-iron skillet or a 9×13 cake pan with 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil. Scrape dough into the pan, then turn it over once so it’s oiled on both sides. Dip your fingers in the oil to coat them and dimple the dough out to the edges as best as you can; it’s okay if it doesn’t fully stretch at this point. Set it aside, loosely covered, for 30 minutes to finish proofing.
Meanwhile, make the spinach pesto: In a food processor or high-speed blender, combine the scallions and garlic. Add spinach and pulse the machine until it’s well-chopped. Drizzle in olive oil until the mixture looks thick but loosened — usually it needs 4 to 6 tablespoons. Season well with salt and red pepper flakes to taste.
To assemble: Being careful not to deflate the dough, use oiled fingers to gently dimple the dough out to the edges of the pan if it’s not there already. Spoon half of the spinach pesto mixture over the dough, and use the back of the spoon to gently spread it out. The toppings should go all the way to the pan’s edge when making this pizza, i.e. do not leave an empty border. Arrange the artichoke hearts over the spinach pesto, then finely grate some of the lemon zest over. Sprinkle mozzarella, parmesan, and fontina, then season the pizza with salt, red pepper flakes, and a little more lemon zest.
Bake the pizza: For 25 to 30 minutes, until deeply golden brown at the edges and toasty on top. Yes, this baking time and temperature is correct. It sounds very long but I’ve made a hundred of these pizzas and always regret when I take it out before 30 minutes, as the edges have a less satisfying crunch.
To serve: Finish with lemon juice. You can serve it right in the pan, but I prefer to protect my knives and loosen the pizza from the pan and slide it onto a cutting board before cutting it into wedges or squares.
Do ahead: Leftovers reheat fantastically. I heat leftover slices on a foil-covered sheet pan at 350°F or 375°F for 15 minutes. Leftover spinach pesto keeps for up to 5 days in the fridge.
Looks AMAZING! Any thoughts about whether you could make the dough with sourdough discard? I am always looking for ways to use mine.
I haven’t worked with it before but if you’ve made others with it, you can use it here.
I have! I used 120 grams of starter, and decreased the flour to 200 grams and the water to 180 grams (1 cup = 240 grams). You could probably use up to 200 grams of starter, just decrease the flour and water proportionately (160 grams flour, 140 grams water). If your starter is happy and active you could drop the yeast down, but I tend to use sad neglected started and need dinner in a reasonable time frame so the commercial yeast is very necessary.
If you go to Alexandra Stafford’s website, she has a version of this dough with sourdough! I have been making the Detroit style pizza – delicious. This topping combo looks amazing!
Shoot just got home with groceries and I debated about spinach and decided I didn’t have a use for it this week…excited to try this crust tho, grilled is our go-to but sometimes it’s just not grill weather but the children have no mercy!
We have been making versions of The Angry Grandma every few weeks since i bought your book. When i made it last week, my husband’s friend couldnt believe that I’d made the dough/pizza myself. And weve piled it with everything from cheese, cheese and more cheese to all the meat we had in the house to all of the veggies in the house, and it is perfect every single time. Thank you for this; i know what I’m having next .
Oh. My. Goodness. The special occasion go-to Chicago stuffed pizza (from Giordano’s) in our household is spinach + artichokes + garlic. It smells so good every time. We have a version that we make at home, but I’ve never thought to do it without the tomato. This will definitely be on our list!
(the person fka Gemini girl.)
I looooove Ali Stafford and pre-ordered Pizza Night! Can’t wait to make this pizza!
I’m a longtime, huge fan of yours and can’t wait to try this. The recipe instructs to spread half of the spinach pesto over the dough but then I’m not seeing an instruction of when to use the other half. Curious if you only use half of the spinach pesto? Or do you add the second half after baking, to finish the pizza? Or half on top of the cheeses and artichokes? Thank you!
The recipe says you only use half the pesto
Folu is AMAZING!! Big fan over here!
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try, do you think I could use a 9×13 Pyrex type of pan to bake the pizza in? (As opposed to a proper metal cake pan).
I’ve made the Angry Grandma pizza from her Keepers Cookbook and it calls for using a 9×13 glass pan and it works great! (Might have to adjust amounts depending on the capacity of your class pan relative to the cake pan but it should bake up just fine.)
I had awful results with Pyrex and have only ever used metal pans since (which is shockingly often). Clearly others have had success, but my first and last attempt was very sad, indeed.
Are you using the Staub braised for this, or, another type of cast iron pan?
Looks nice! I hope you and Kenji have a pan pizza episode of “The Recipe” soon! I use his overnight foolproof pan pizza recipe, but bump up the yeast for a same-day timeframe. We do Weird Pizza Wednesday, with whatever happens to be in the fridge and fruit bowl. Last week we had pear, blue cheese and red onion on an alfredo-ish white base. Everyone loves it when we have pineapple and some kind of sliced meat around. I make an acceptable quick pizza sauce from half a little can of tomato paste, a clove of garlic and some dried oregano, thinned with water to the right consistency. Our 5yo will eat anything on pizza, as long as it has olives too. We also love chucking handfuls of lightly dressed salad greens on top after it’s served and sliced.
I’ve got the same dough recipe – Kenji’s but bump up the yeast for same day. 100g flour/70g H2O for each personal pizza. Kids also get a few pizza rolls each made from 56g of the finished dough and moz and pepperoni inside. They like them in school lunches.
I purée muir glen tomatoes for red sauce, or use pesto (frozen and portioned in an silicon ice cube tray) for green.
Oh, hey, I love it when something like this shows up just when I need a light-ish idea for dinner. I usually cleave pretty closely the first time with a recipe, but I just made artichoke risotto a couple of nights ago. So: mushrooms and a chopped jalapeno instead of artichoke, and shallot instead of scallions because that’s what I had. I loved the no-knead crust and the fact it came together so quickly. The crust was really flavorful. The spinach pesto was terrific, as was the lemon zest. Next time I’ll do it with artichokes, and probably a blend of AP and white whole wheat flour. And maybe some anchovy? Anyway, this one has endless possibilities….
Ooooh, this is already our family’s favourite focaccia recipe, especially when it’s had a 24 hour rise in the fridge. And I *just* bought a second metal 9×13 pan. The universe is telling me to start the dough now for pizza tomorrow!
This looks amazing, Deb, and I’m so excited for Alexandra’s book too! How do you think this would be if I use frozen (cooked and cooled) spinach to make the pesto? Not as bright green, but still tasty?
As usual your timing is perfect. Spinach in the fridge and pizza on the menu tomorrow. This sounds perfect!
Love this. Thank you. I’ve been doing this for years using America’s test kitchen recipe for pizza bianca (what they called focaccia). For my recipe I bake the pizza for about 8 minitues without toppings and about 10 with. Comes out so good. Can’t wait to try your verison. Otherwise pizza at home doesn’t work for me.
Really good. I only have a 10-inch cast iron pan, so I assume the crust turned out a little thicker, and of course the amount of cheese was a tad too high (not that it’s a problem, but the melted cheese overflowed a little haha). But the crust was delicious, moist yet crunchy. And I guess the portion size was a bit small, or its just so good that I wanted more! And the leftovers do heat up well. Definitely making this again sometime!
SO DELICIOUS. I love this approach to pizza dough because it really hits the spot of crunchy fluffy flavourful without any fuss at all.
I didn’t have the right size pan so just used two smaller ones that I had – worked just fine, and baked a tad shorter.
I also made the dough on Saturday around noon, let it rise for 2 hours, then popped it in the fridge and baked it around 24 hours later.
Wow. Thanks for a pizza recipe that doesn’t guilt trip me for not having $1,200 of equipment dedicated to making pizza, and make me feel like an obvious loser for not having a brick, wood fire pizza oven in my kitchen.
After all, if you don’t have those things, any pizza you make would only be swill, fit for feeding farm animals.
I accepted the fact that I am a complete failure. However, magically, Deb, you have shown me the light, that I can, make pizza at home, and won’t have to suffer…thank you!
This was so delicious! I made the spinach pesto and the dough Friday evening and after rising, the dough went in the fridge for close to 24 hours. I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour in place of some of the all-purpose. Otherwise made the recipe as written and cooked in a 12-inch cast iron pan. Perfection! Thanks for another great recipe!
“Some of the best pizza I have ever had!” That is what my son just told me and we also agree. It was the crust that made the difference. My family would not have eaten these toppings, but I followed the other pizza recipes on this site. I also did the crust from the Angry Grandma recipe in Smitten Kitchen Keepers, but this one was far superior. It might be the cast iron skillet that brought out the delicious crunchy flavorful crust.
Hi! I’ve made both the angry grandma pizza dough from SKK and the easy flatbread pizza dough from Smitten Kitchen Everyday. Are there certain situations you would recommend one over the other – or do you solely recommend the angry grandma one now (the one featured on this recipe)? You have so many pizza dough recipes (like the lazy pizza dough from 2013!) and would love for you to compare them. :)
How much yeast did you use when you doubled the recipe?
Thanks!
This is the same dough as the Angry Grandma, so it’s a similar effect. I still use all of my doughs, but for pizza night, this has been winning more the last couple years.
Holy cow! I’ve been following SK for years and this is one of my favorite recipes yet. I spent a lot of time during quarantine working on my home pizza game, and this dough was both simpler than anything else I tried and so much more delicious. And weirdly…not too dense/overly filling for a deep dish pie?
Best homemade pizza I have ever made!! I made the recipe exactly as written and it was perfect. This dough is my new house pizza dough recipe. My family loved it too!!
Made this tonight and it was awesome!!!!
Yum! I just got ramps at the market, I’m planning to use them for the pesto instead of the spinach/scallions, will report back!
This pizza was so good! My partner who “doesn’t really like artichokes” wolfed it down. The finishing touch of fresh lemon takes it from Delicious to Divine.
My food processor is broken, so I blitzed the pesto in a cheap Magic Bullet knock-off to get a scraggly pesto with bigger chunks of leaf. It was still really nice- because it’s just going on a pizza with multiple layers of toppings, it doesn’t really have to be perfect.
My favorite food blogger covering one of my favorite bread recipe developer’s recipes! Awesome, thanks!
I made this last night and it was delish!
Amazing pizza! Loved the crust and the caramelized cheese edges with the artichokes and spinach pesto. My family is ready for me to make it again.
This was delicious. Thanks, Deb!!!! I feel like I’ve been on a pizza journey with you over the years and I’m grateful for this iteration. I made as directed except used marinated artichoke hearts, added thinly sliced red onion, and used the Syrah soaked Tuscan cheese from Trader Joe’s in place of fontina. Yum!
This was just ok for me. It didn’t taste bad in any way but I made this because I wanted pizza but this came out as vegetable and pesto topped focaccia. Still tasty but definitely not the same as deep dish or any other kind of pizza.
Made this last night. Doubled the dough as suggested. I used half AP flour and half bread flour. Dough seemed sluggish, but I think it worked out as it was supposed to. 6 hr cold fermentation. Made one Spinach-Artichoke (added some slivered onion as it was available). Don’t skip the lemon juice at the end. Made this pizza sing! Topped with a liberal shake of Aleppo Pepper after the oven. The second pie was meatball-ricotta made with red sauce, meatballs, and ricotta dollops. I also used the same parm/romano/asiago blend as the Spinach Pizza. They were both amazing. Lots of easy grab-and-go lunch leftovers this week!
Obsessed with Ali! She single handedly taught me how to make bread and every recipe I’ve tried (bread and non-bread) have been amazing. Can’t wait for the pizza cookbook to get here on Thursday!
This pizza looks amazing and I’ll have to wait to make it until we have others over as the rest of my household is stuck in the “only eating pizza if it’s just cheese, sausage or pepperoni”. How boring!
This was amazing!!!!
Made this today and the dough is so great and forgiving! I let it rise 1.5 hours in a warm oven that I had turned off and then put it in the fridge overnight. I pulled it out to put it on the counter to warm up and got busy so it was on the counter for a couple hours before I put it into the pan. Then I did the 30 min rise as directed. Delicious golden crispy crust! And it’s not a super heavy focaccia-like crust. Still felt airy to me!
Absolutely marvelous! I am a mile high so I added 2 additional tablespoons of flour, crust was perfect. I loved the spinach and artichoke version. Next day did a meat friendly version which made the family happy. Thank you Deb for a easy pan pizza I can bake at home.
Haven’t made the spinach and artichoke version yet, but doubled the dough and used a sheet pan (for a regular old cheese pizza). Dough was perfect and I’m sad the pizza is gone now.
Made this with vegan cheeses. It was good! Would make again.
Tips: Used Miyoko’s faux mozzarella (solid) and Follow Your Heart Parmesan (not sponsored—listing brands only to help others). Also used the parmesan for the asiago (i.e., double the parm). We cut pieces of the mozz, which browned and did not lose their shape. Maybe the Miyoko’s liquid mozzarella would be better here? Used Urfa Biber because that’s the first chili I found in my spice drawer … iykyk … and it worked great. But buyer beware, it’s not the same as artichoke dip made with real cheese, but my digestive system wasn’t in pain for a week, yay! I want to use the extra pesto for something else … it’s so good … maybe as a sauce for grilled chicken (burgers)?!
Made this tonight to inaugurate my fabulous new Staub x Smitten braiser! I can’t eat cow’s-milk cheese, so used goat cheese instead, and my kids and I loved it. One lesson learned though – I don’t know if it was just the braiser, or if I didn’t use enough olive oil (usually I have the opposite tendency TBH), but in the future I’ll try doubling the amount of olive oil in the pan. Our beautiful bottom crust stuck to the pan so when I removed it, I had what you might call a pizza yurt – delightful but without a floor, if you see what I mean. We just fork-and-knifed it and still loved it, but thought I’d share in hopes of sparing anyone else the lesson.
Also, FWIW, I didn’t have a fresh lemon to zest, so I added a couple dashes of lemon juice to the pesto. I’m sure it’s nowhere near as good as the original recipe, but it was still phenomenal. Thank you Deb!
So glad you’re enjoying the braiser! I also made a pizza in mine last week; just a basic tomato-cheese pan pizza because I realized I’d never tested it in there. I usually use a 12″ cast iron skillet (not enameled). The braiser is 11″; I found that it came out about 20% to 25% thicker and got a little less dark and crisp underneath, but no less delicious. I agree we need to be extra-generous with the oil.
Delish! Used 3/4 cup whole wheat and it was still pillowy and crunchy in all the right ways. Any luck with freezing the pesto?
This is amazing and absolutely delicious!!! Thank you for this recipe… the kids and husband loved it! By far the best homemade pizza I have ever made… thank you for another amazing recipe to add to the regular rotation!
Any suggestions for using whole wheat flour in the future for the crust?
We’ve made the Angry Grandma pizza from the cookbook several times—such a keeper! Just tried this version, and the artichoke/lemon/spinach combination was fantastic, so fun for spring. I’ve found it helps to lower the oven rack (below middle) to get a crispy crust, and to shift the pizza to a cutting board/rack to cool. I always forget, but there’s nothing worse than getting that perfect crisp, going back for a second piece and realizing the rest has gone soggy in the pan.
I just made this as I have loads of fresh spinach .I wish I had spread all the pesto on the bread dough. It didn’t pop out when I ate it. I only cooked for 20 minutes as the cheese was getting too brown. Very crispy thanks yo the extra oil. So when it was cool I spread the rest of the pesto on top of the focaccia. Delish
Best homemade pizza I’ve made! Star is the dough. Next time I might use the whole pesto batch and not just half. Cheesiness is spot-on and decadent. I mixed the dough at 1:45, rested it until 4:45, put it in the fridge for an hour, took it out at 5:45, let it rest until I shaped it in the pan at 6:15, and put the pizza in the oven at 6:45. Soo three hour rest, 1 hour fridge rest, and a half hour before working with it. All this to say the dough is forgiving and flexible!
Really tasty! I used some whole wheat flour in the crust just because I ran out of regular AP flour (about 100g of the 260 g). I added a drop more water to account for the denser flour. It turned out great. I made in my 10” cast iron—also great, but will try it next time in a 9×13” pan with all AP flour. I absolutely love the lemon zest. The crispy cheese edges with a hint of lemon zest are to die for. It was also awesome at room temp later that night as a late night snack. Mmmmm.
OMG…this was so good! ..made it tonight. Didn’t change anything…and that crunch on the crust is fab!
You note that the sauce and toppings should be spread all the way to the edge, with no border for this pizza. Can you help us understand why some pizzas need a border and others do not? I have never read a reason for this and I can’t determine if it is preference or a function of the type of crust, the baking method, or a magical other reason that has not occurred to me. Thanks.
It depends on the kind of pizza. This has a long baking time and well-oiled sides. An exposed crust will burn but the parts where the toppings meet the pan edges are highly delicious.
Whoa whoa whoa this is fantastic. Made for dinner tonight and my partner said I’d “unlocked a new level.” Used cherry-sized mozzarella balls and cut them into four, subbed in gruyere since I couldn’t find fontina or asiago. Really phenomenal, really easy!
Updating to add! Used the rest of the spinach pesto last night in pasta: cavatappi, toss with the pesto and a little bit of pasta water, tons of parmesan and red pepper and lemon juice, top with toasted pecans. (Nuts and cheese on top for a sort of deconstructed pesto feel, lol.) Out of this world good and crazy simple.
Have you tried the crust with gluten free flour?
Yes! King Arthur measure for measure gf flour works great. Needs to be baked in cast iron though… did not turn out well in glass.
Thank you! Was hoping someone had tried a GF version. Will definitely use my trusted my cast iron.
Hello,
Thank you so much for so many of your wonderful recipes! I just made the Spinach Artichoke Pan pizza and it was quite wonderful! And its sooo not easy to make good pizza at home for sure. I have a question and it’s the second time I’ve run into this problem with a measurement. You call for 45 grams of shredded parm. or 1/2 cup. So I only use Parm/reggiano and I shred it with the microplaner. it would take like 3 cups to equal 45 grams. Do you mean another type of parm to shred perhaps on a box grater? I know there is another type of grated parm. thanks for you help using the microplaner. all I did was microplane 1/2 cup and it seemed to work out. But there is another recipe where I ran into the same problem. Can’t recall which. Many thanks!
I don’t ever measure parmesan grated with a microplane because it makes fluffy clouds that weigh about 10 grams. :) I’m using the small holes on a box grater. There’s no such thing as a consistent cup measure for grated ingredients as they’ll always fall differently in a cup, so just use the amount that looks or tastes good to you.
Made this on flatbread I bought from the grocery store and it turned out great! Added basil to the pesto to give it a bit more flavor. Also topped it with a few basil leaves for serving.
Really good pizza! I used several cheeses since I didn’t have the asked for amount of mozzarella…..so added some St. Andre and aged Manchego along with the Parmesan. But the crust! So, so good…love the crispy olive oil-y crust! Looking forward to using it in the future.
Yum! This worked great with King Arthur measure for measure gluten-free flour. The crust was perfect in my cast-iron skillet. The biggest I had was 10 1/2”, so I put the extra dough in a very small cast-iron skillet and it was perfect. When I tried using a 9 x 13 glass pan, the crust did not turn out well at all, though; way too soft. I thought about using a ceramic coated cast-iron pan, but I was afraid the dough would stick. If anyone has done successfully, let me know!
I made this last Friday and had a quibble with the bake time. I doubled the dough recipe, as suggested. Then I baked 2 pizzas, 1 in a cast iron pan and 1 in a 9×13 metal pan (as both were suggested in the recipe). The cast iron one was lovely and done after 30 minutes. The 9×13 pan was not – completely pale and wet and undercooked, so I kept it in the oven at least another 30-40 minutes (so around 1 hr 10 minutes total!). Still the crust texture was not quite right and the color was off, while the toppings were over-browned. Not sure if anyone else has used an aluminum 9×13 pan, judging from the comments it seems like cast iron is really the only way to go.
I didn’t try the pesto/toppings, but I can attest that the crust is a 10/10 with pizza sauce, cheese, and sausage! As Deb noted, it indeed reheats beautifully in the oven.
Made this tonight for dinner and it was a big hit! So yummy! I myself maybe had three pieces. I used a sourdough focaccia recipe for the base, from a starter… That paired with the lemon zest gave it everything a nice tang!
I made this yesterday, and disaster – I chose the wrong pan and the base completely fused on to it, so all we could eat was a scraped off layer of toppings plus top half of the crust. Later on I managed to chisel the stuck bits off crust off and we ate them like a delicious crouton bedtime snack!
However, it was so delicious and easy I’m making it again tonight, in a different pan, so we can have the full experience. It’s a lot more oil and cheese than I would normally put on anything but it tasted amazing so totally worth the calories. Oh and we easily ate the full amount between 3, I think for 4 people it would leave you wanting more to eat.
Will the pesto freeze well? And if so do you know how it can be frozen for?
Made this yesterday and it came out perfectly! Will definitely make again.
I have made this twice now. The first time I thought it would be a complete fail as my dough was so runny but I went with it. It was the best pizza recipe I have ever done. So easy to make and came out looking like I was a professional.I added basil and pine nuts to the pesto mix.I added some ricotta and feta along with the mozzarella as I didn’t have the other cheeses and I also threw on some cherry tomatoes. Such a great recipe
Made it last night. It was fantastic. I loved the spinach pesto and the dough (and I’m usually a thin crust fan).
Hi, this is giving me inspiration to try making pizza crust again, so thank you. (Previous versions were excellent tasting but the act of heating empty cast iron in a 500 degree oven for a half hour and then assembling the pizza in the screaming hot pan always set off the lady in the smoke detector.) If I wanted to freeze half the dough to make pizza later, could I do it with this crust recipe? If so at what point in the process would I freeze it? And any thoughts on thawing instructions? Thank you!
I used a 10-inch cast iron pan and found that 2/3 of a recipe is perfect (based off of other comments that a full recipe was too much dough). I actually made 1+2/3 of the recipe and used 40% of the dough for the 10-inch skillet and 60% for a 9×13 (for a pepperoni pizza). It’s a little bit of math but it scales up easily and turned out perfect! This is definitely a new family favorite!
I think I’ve made this 4-5 times already since I saw the recipe a couple weeks ago! Whole family loves it. Great for easy dinner or to make for quick on the go snackers. I keep sourdough so I use 120g discard and reduce the flour and water but 60g each. So good…
Delicious! Finally made a pizza dough that I liked! Used King Arthur pizza flour and the texture was great-especially the crispy edges. Only change was using store bought pesto. Love a tasty meat free dinner!
Thanks, Deb!
This pizza was delicious. I made the full recipe and divided it into 2 pizzas using ll of the spinach pesto. Used 2 – 8 inch cast iron skillets that I lined with parchment paper. The two of us ate one of the pizzas for supper and I froze the second one. I baked the thawed second one tonight. It was as good as the fresh one. I love when I can cook once and have 2 meals.
This was/is absolutely delicious. I followed the directions! I was so pleased with the crust. Light, crispy… I need to finagle my spinach pesto, but I loved this! Thank you.
I’ve made this twice now and was just about to leave a comment asking about not having enough dough to fill the pan…When I realized that the alternative to a cast iron skillet is a 9×13 cake pan and I’ve been using a sheet pan! ‘Doh. Has anyone modified this for a sheet pan? I tried increase the dough ingredients by 25% and it still wasn’t quiiiite big enough. Crust comes out delicious, but very thin.
AMAZING recipe and I’ve had fun riffing with it by adding cherry tomatoes or roasted red pepper. The addtion of lemon zest and juice is out of this world. We are a pan pizza household and there is no going back! I think I’m going to make Pan Pizza Fridays a thing for us.
We made this as our last pre-Passover dinner and it was great. I only wished i had used all the pesto—the flavor of it was pretty muted once baked. Loved the pan pizza technique!
I thought this was great – and can’t wait to check out the cookbook. I also made the crust the day before, and let it finish rising in the fridge overnight. took it out the next day for 1 – 2 hrs to come to temp before putting it in the pan for 30 min final rise.
One thing to watch for is that there are a lot of moist toppings on this pizza so I think pan size is important. It was not clear to me if perlini are fresh (I ended up with the small bocconcini and cut them in half), the green sauce was a little frustrating to make in a vitamix (not enough volume) – I had to move into the mini blender that came our hand held, and that worked well.