Homemade Pesto Pizza

I had some arugula pesto left over from earlier this week - not really enough for pasta or rice, but too much to waste, so I decided to use it on pizza. This is another one of those things that's so easy, I'm not going to bother with the recipe. Here's what you do:

1. Get a bag of fresh pizza dough. I use Trader Joe's - it comes in wheat, regular and garlic herb and all three a very nice.

2. Preheat the oven to 500 with an empty metal cookie sheet set on the middle rack. Meanwhile, flour a piece of parchment paper that is roughly the size of the cookie sheet. Spread the pizza dough over it until it roughly covers the whole thing. Poke shallow holes in it with a fork and set aside.

3. When the oven is at temp., pull out the cookie sheet and slide the parchment paper and pizza dough onto it. Pop it into the oven for 4-ish minutes, or until the dough has started to rise and bubble.

4. Pull the pizza dough out. Poke any bubbles with a fork and slather it with the pesto. Follow that up with parmesan or a bit of shredded smoked mozzarella, some roasted or sauteed cherry tomatoes, and a bit of fresh mint. Sprinkle black pepper and sea salt over the top and pop it back into the oven until the top is starting to get golden brown. About 6-ish minutes.

5. Pull the pizza out of the oven and let it sit for a minute or two - that sucker's going to be *hot*. Then cut it up into about 8 pieces with a pizza cutter and enjoy. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, depending on what toppings you want to use.

Other options include:

parmesan, ground beef and corn

parmesan, sauteed or fresh mushrooms and shallots

prosciutto and roasted red peppers with the cheese of your choice