Potato Pesto Pizza

My sister has been in town for a few days.  Woohooooo.  Life with a teenager...so beautiful.  I hear the sounds of bi-minutely text message alerts, singing in the shower,  and all sorts of bad-itude.  And to think...I probably had way worse teenager-isms when I was her age.  Like MAJOR bad-itude.  

When I think of teenager, I think of pesto!  Actually, it is true.  Teenagers can be picky (although my sister mostly is not), and I feel like a good basil pesto can satisfy anyone.  Does anyone not like pesto?  Doubt it.  

I got the idea for this pizza on FoodPeopleWant.  It has been in the 90's for what seems like the past 3 weeks.  So, I opted to grill it, but just gave general baking directions.  And it was really good grilled (even though you don't get the golden brown cheese).  And I used the basil that we grew in our window box.  That was fun.  Scot harvested the crops for me.  

The pizza is really simple...pesto, cheese and potato.  I have been really into subbing potato for a protein.  Even though, I am obsessed with chicken pesto pizza, sometimes I have a hard time not overcooking the chicken on pizzas and I would rather eat burnt plastic than eat overcooked chicken.  It is pretty hard to overcook a potato.  It is also way cheaper.  And potato on pizza is so good.  

Potato Pesto Pizza

pizza dough (1/2 this recipe)

1/2 cup pesto (recipe below)

1-2 red potatoes

8 oz. of mozzarella (thinly sliced fresh or shredded)

Preheat oven to 475-500 degrees (with pizza stone if using).

Place potatoes in small pot and cover with water. Bring water to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until potatoes are just fork tender. Stretch out dough to form pizza. Top with pesto, potatoes and cheese. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

(Servings: 2-4, Prep time: 30 min., Cook time: 15 min., Difficulty: Easy)

Pesto

(makes about 1 cup)

2 cups of basil (loosely packed)

1/2 cup of grated parmesan

handful of pine nuts

1 garlic clove, grated

1/2 cup olive oil

Put basil, parmesan, pine nuts and garlic into the food processor. Pulse until evenly minced (you might need to scrape down the bowl a few times to get it all chopped up). Then, run the food processor and drizzle in olive oil until it becomes the right consistency (I like it to be like a loose paste). Use more olive oil, if needed.

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