Believe it or not… the leftover pizza dough got even tastier overnight. There must be little fridge elves, sprinkling love and deliciousness onto the dough as it sat there for 2 days, not neglected.. but reserved for a special purpose.
I discovered pesto very late into life, perhaps just last year, when one of my friends brought in a pasta salad for a party. It was incredible – the cold refreshing taste of basil and crunchy vegetables.. I had to learn how to make that. Since then I’d made pesto once, which I then tossed into a huge bowl of pasta and vegetables, and I ate that for days. It was a pasta salad week. And I could’ve sworn I could smell garlic and basil oozing out of my pores, not exactly all that attractive. Coincidentally, that was probably also the week of my dating dry spell…
This time I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had the leftover dough from the other night and a bunch of basil that I knew would not keep for much longer. I made a quick pesto, subbing walnuts for the pinenuts (the poor man’s pesto, is what I call it. Who knew pinenuts cost $9 for 4 tiny ounces?) and set it aside for my lunchtime masterpiece.
Pesto Flatbread
- 1 cup of packed basil leaves
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 1/8 cup of grated parmesan
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a handful of walnuts
- salt and pepper
Pizza Dough (see recipe)
Pulse the garlic, walnuts, basil and parmesan in a food processor and then add the olive oil, pulsing to combine into a paste. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I’m using less cheese in this pesto because I figured I’d be adding other cheeses to it, depending on what I’d be using it for.)
I took the leftover pizza dough out of the fridge, let it come to room temp for a bit, and then rolled it out as thin as I could, about 1/4 inch. Top with pesto paste, and on half, I added some of the roasted vegetable quinoa salad I had leftover. Crumble some goat cheese on everything and bake at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes. Be careful to check that it doesn’t burn! Mine looked done a couple minutes short of 15, and you can smell the delicious garlic and basil. In fact, my apt still smells like it right now. I think I’ll continue sitting around here for a bit. (Ok no, OFF the couch, lazy ass! Its a gorgeous 80 degrees outside!!!)
Me and my walking shoes bid you adieu! Happy Lunchtime!
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