Pumpkin Seed Pesto Pizza with Yellow Squash, Goats Cheese and Dill

My garden is thriving, as the summer is at last here for definite! I’ve got various salads, including hot and peppery rocket, butter lettuce, chard, spinach..to name a few. And of course dill, which I use as a salad ingredient most days. Freshly picked, nothing beats the aromatic flavour of dill. It adds depth and contrast to this pizza, and is a match made in heaven with goats cheese.

This pizza came about as Al Fresco dining was on the cards last week, as it had been a hot afternoon, and the promise of a warm evening was guaranteed!

But after the decision had been made that pizza was on the menu, I realized I didn’t have my store cupboard staple – Pesto. But as I mentioned above, my rocket and spinach was doing well, so I quickly threw one together. The lack of pine nuts didn’t put me off, I just substituted them with pumpkin seeds, they do the job nicely!

Here’s the confessional part of the blog post – I never use recipes, or measurements whilst cooking at home…

Only when baking do I pull out the scales and books, baking is a science, cooking is an art form! But when I am creating a recipe for the blog, or the magazine I work for, I meticulously measure my ingredients as they are being prepared, so I know what to tell the readers.

But I thought I would, as a first ever Camera and Clementine special, not include precise quantities for the pesto (I will do that for the dough, though) as it is an easy recipe to develop and practice your cooking skills and tastebuds on.

Pesto

makes one jar

2 big handfuls of fresh spinach

2 handfuls of rocket

1 handful of fresh basil

3 cloves of garlic

1 handful of pumpkin seeds

a large squirt of lemon juice

enough organic extra virgin olive oil to make it smooth

a 3×3 inch square of parmigiana

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Dough

300g strong flour

½ tsp fast action yeast

2 tbsp olive oil

170ml water

½ tsp salt

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Topping

1 small yellow courgette

100g goats cheese

3 tbsp pesto

1 red onion, sliced

a few olives

a few sprigs of dill

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Method

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To make the dough:

Tip the flour, salt and yeast into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour the water and oil into the well and slowly incorporate the flour until you have a soft dough.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 min. Place back into the bowl, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 220 °c /fan 200 °c.

Lightly knead the dough again. Divide the dough into two equal balls and roll out using a rolling pin and place on 2 baking trays

To make the pesto:

Dump all of the ingredients into a food possessor and blitz for a few seconds. Then with the motor running, add the olive oil. Now taste it, and check the consistency. Is it garlicky enough? Can you taste the parmigiana? If not, add a bit more. 

 

Pop in a jar, and refrigerate.

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To assemble the pizza:

Spread the pesto over the two pizza base’s and layer the sliced squash, goats cheese, olives and red onion on top.

Bake for 12-14 min, once out of the oven, top with dill and serve.