Mini Pesto Pizzas

We love pizza. We love mini food.

So we put our two favorite things together and made mini pizzas!

The dough recipe makes enough for 8 mini pizzas or 2 large pizzas. You can use as much of the dough as you need and then refrigerate or freeze the rest for next time.  This dough is awesome and tastes great with any kind of pizza toppings. Our favorite Italian restaurant closed recently and they had the best pesto pizza. We wanted to recreate it.  They used fresh tomatoes but we thought sun-dried tomatoes would be a yummy twist.

***Makes 8 mini pizzas***

Ingredients for pizza

• pizza dough (recipe below)
• pesto sauce (recipe below)
• 2 cups mozzarella
• 1 jar sun-dried tomatoes

Directions for pizza

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. On a floured surface, roll dough out to desired size and thickness.
3. Top each pizza with 1-2 tablespoons of pesto sauce, 1/4 cup of mozzarella and 3 chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
4. Place pizzas on pizza stone or crisping sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Ingredients for the pizza dough

• 1 tsp active dry or instant yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions for the pizza dough

1. Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
2. In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour.
3. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Ingredients for the pesto sauce

• 2 Tbsp lightly toasted pine nuts, chopped
• 1 cup cleaned basil leaves, tightly packed
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions for pesto sauce

1. In a blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients and process on high until smooth, 1 -2 minutes.