Pesto Chicken Pizza

The first meal I ever cooked for M was a pesto pizza in my crappy Allston apartment in an ancient oven in the kitchen with windows that looked into a sketchy alley. I used pesto made my former boss' mother, a little Sicilian lady we liked to call "Mama T" (Mama T was crazy...for reals, but a good kind of crazy: she always used to say "wha's tha matta you? Shutuppa you face!"). We've made pesto pizza since then, but never with homemade pesto.

So, last night we decided to whip up some Chicken Pesto Pizza. I used the almond meal pizza dough derived from NorCal Strength & Conditioning, and a walnut pesto recipe derived from Everyday Paleo.

Walnut Pesto
Ingredients:

4 cups fresh basil
1 cup walnuts
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
6 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp lemon juice

I combined the olive oil, garlic, walnuts, sea salt and lemon juice in the food processor and processed until well blended.

I then added the basil cup by cup until the mixture was a pesto-y consistency


Chicken Pesto Pizza
Ingredients:

Almond meal pizza crust
1 chicken breast
4 tomatoes
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (I used Cabot Seriously Sharp)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
As much pesto as is desired (I used a bunch, probably 1 1/2 cups)

I prepared the pizza crust and rolled it out onto a greased baking sheet. We allowed it to bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

While the crust was baking, M seasoned the chicken with garlic powder and parsley and cooked it in olive oil over medium heat.

Once the crust was finished pre-baking, I covered it in pesto and tomato slices (from my mother's garden in VT!)


Once the chicken was done cooking, we covered (smothered?) the pizza.

I added the cheeses,

and she was ready to go in the oven. We baked the pizza for about 15 minutes: until the cheese had started to brown.

While the pizza was baking, I whipped up a salad using cucumber and cherry tomatoes from my Mama's garden.

We snacked on homemade guacamole that M's mother had brought over!

After about 15 minutes, the pizza was finished.

The olive oil from the pesto ended up exploding over the sides of the crust. I'd never made pesto pizza with an almond meal crust, so I didn't account for the oil that would seep through--usually a wheat pizza crust will catch and hold the oil. All of the extra oil caused the almond meal crust to be a total fail-- it stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Even though it wasn't technically a pizza, it was still delicious! The pesto was so garlicky! Just the way I like it! The chicken was tender and the tomatoes were sweet. I'm sure that Mama T would be impressed...