Chicken, Pesto and Pine Nut Pizza: An Easy Pizza Recipe With Homemade Pizza Dough

The dough used for this pizza, is a bread pizza dough:

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of strong white flour
• 10 gram sachet of dried yeast
• 300 ml of tepid water
• tsp of salt

Method:

Phase 1:

• Put the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl.
• Make a well in the middle.
• Add in the water and mix.
• Use your hands to combine the dough to a pillowy consistency.
• Tip the dough out onto a floured surface.
• Knead for about twenty minutes until the dough is springy and smooth.
• Put the dough into a clean oiled bowl and cover with cling film.
• Leave till doubled in size.

Phase 2:

• Remove the cling film from the bowl.
• Punch the dough to knock out the air.
• Tip the dough onto a floured surface.
• Roll into a circle shape about 1/4 inch thick.
• Place on a greased baking tray.

Note:

• If you are not cooking the pizza base straight away cover with cling film and leave in the fridge till you are ready to use.
• This pizza dough is also suitable for freezing.
• You can make several small pizzas instead of one large one if you have a fussy family or if you have leftovers in the fridge you need to use up.

Ingredients:

• one large (or two small) grilled chicken breast cut into chunky slices
• 3 oz of grated mozzarella
• 5 to 6 tablespoons of pesto
• a handful of pine nuts lightly toasted
• a handful of fresh basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• cracked black pepper to season

Note:

The pesto can be shop bought, however there's nothing quite like homemade pesto. Check out the link for tomato and basil pesto soup provided to get the recipe for making your own homemade pesto. It's a great, tasty yet simple recipe.

• Preheat the oven to 250º C/ Gas 9.
• Spread a good layer of pesto over the pizza dough right out to the edges.
• Top with the sliced cooked chicken breast.
• Sprinkle over the toasted pine nuts.
• Add the grated mozzarella.
• Scatter the fresh basil leaves.
• Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil.
• Season with a little black pepper.
• Cook for 15 minutes until the pizza is golden and crisp, slice and serve.

Pizza dough is very easy to make and more importantly is cheap to make.

A medium thin pizza base has about 600 calories. The calorific pizzas are normally loaded with cheese and processed meats; have thick bases or stuffed crusts. Making your own pizza allows you to choose more healthier options without losing any of the flavor.

Pizzas are a great way of using up leftovers as anything goes when topping a pizza. Use your imagination and opt for different toppings. Think: roast beef and horseradish; garlic butter and prawns; sweet red peppers and halloumi cheese; chicken and BBQ sauce; turkey and sweet corn. The sky is the limit when it comes to leftovers.

Go all out and make a breakfast or brunch pizza for the weekend; drizzle some tomato ketchup over your pizza base; add some sliced tomato, cooked sausage and cooked bacon; make a little space in each quarter of the pizza and crack in an egg. Cook in a preheated oven 250º C/Gas 9 for 15 minutes until the pizza is crisp and golden. Delicious.

Use your favorite chutneys, relishes and salsas instead of a tomato sauce base to add a different theme to your pizza. For example; goats cheese and red onion chutney.

Smother a pizza base in garlic butter and top with grated cheese and diced spring onion for an easy, delicious garlic bread option.

There are no fast rules when it comes to pizza; experiment with flavors and create your own pizza masterpiece. Hope you enjoy.