We have the freezer to thank for our Friday Night Pizza this week as I pulled three of the main ingredients from there! I wasn't going to be home in time to get this
Chicken and Goat Cheese Pizza With Fresh Basil together in time to eat at a decent hour, so I cooked the chicken (which was trimmed and portioned in the freezer from the a Costco trip a couple weeks ago) last night and left it to chill, par-baked the pizza crust this morning before breakfast (early riser!) and moved the corn and pesto from the freezer into the refrigerator to thaw. All I had to do when I got home this evening was preheat the oven, top the crust and after a good 10 minutes in the oven, bang! Dinner was ready!
The pesto, made in a giant batch last week to use up the last of our basil plants, made its way onto the crust first, followed by the shredded chicken, thawed corn kernels we had cut from the multitude of ears we garnered from the farmers' market during the summer, crumbles of goat cheese and for a little extra richness, a hearty drizzle from a bottle of quality extra-virgin olive-oil. Seasoned with a sprinkle of salt and fresh ground black pepper, the pizza needs to bake just long enough to finish off the crust and give the tangy cheese crumbles a tinge of golden brown color.
For a note of freshness, and to tug on the pesto layer underneath, as soon as the pizza was swept of the stone, we scattered the top with basil leaves and called it done. If you like a softer crust, and don't need to rush as I did, feel free to stretch the raw dough out and scatter the toppings on, then tack on a couple extra minutes to the bake time, if needed. The original recipe did call for a half cup of portobello mushrooms, browned in a skillet with a touch of oil and salt, but honestly it didn't appeal to me (nor Jeff, surprise surprise!) and we didn't feel the pizza suffered - if you groove on them though, go for it!
The pesto, made in a giant batch last week to use up the last of our basil plants, made its way onto the crust first, followed by the shredded chicken, thawed corn kernels we had cut from the multitude of ears we garnered from the farmers' market during the summer, crumbles of goat cheese and for a little extra richness, a hearty drizzle from a bottle of quality extra-virgin olive-oil. Seasoned with a sprinkle of salt and fresh ground black pepper, the pizza needs to bake just long enough to finish off the crust and give the tangy cheese crumbles a tinge of golden brown color.
For a note of freshness, and to tug on the pesto layer underneath, as soon as the pizza was swept of the stone, we scattered the top with basil leaves and called it done. If you like a softer crust, and don't need to rush as I did, feel free to stretch the raw dough out and scatter the toppings on, then tack on a couple extra minutes to the bake time, if needed. The original recipe did call for a half cup of portobello mushrooms, browned in a skillet with a touch of oil and salt, but honestly it didn't appeal to me (nor Jeff, surprise surprise!) and we didn't feel the pizza suffered - if you groove on them though, go for it!
yum I absolutely love goat cheese on pizza--what a great combination of ingredients!
ReplyDeleteNatalie - Thanks!
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