Arugula Pesto and Wild Mushroom Pizza

Arugula Pesto and Wild Mushroom Pizza just waiting it's turn in the oven!

So for our pot luck this month I made cornbread to go with the chili that Kathy was making. I will be making the chili this week so check back for that recipe. It was incredibly delicious chili and better than any I have made!

I also wanted to take an appetizer so I was going to take the spinach dip that I had taken to the Halloween party. All was good the night before and I had everything ready to go the next day. Then T. decided to tell me that he thought the spinach dip wasn't very good and I should make some of that really good pizza dough from last week and make an Augula Pesto and Wild Mushroom Pizza...Yep, I'll get right on that!

The pizza dough he was talking about was the Daring Baker Pizza Dough Challenge from last month. It's a freakin' 2 day pizza dough. I had just enough time that night to get the dough done and let it rest overnight in the fridge. Unbelievable! Why would he not tell me he didn't like something until the very last minute!!!! Anyway the pizza turned out incredible and everyone really liked it and it was gone in no time at all. I guess I'll have to wait until the next time I go to make before I find out if T. really likes it or not!

Arugula Pesto

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh arugula
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts (i just lightly toasted them in a dry pan)
6 garlic cloves (you can use less but I love garlic)
2 pinches of sea salt

Directions:

Add arugula, Parmesan, toasted pine nuts, garlic, sea salt to the bowl of your food processor. Chop until well chopped and mixed. Add the Olive Oil slowly to the mixture.

Arugula Pesto spread onto the pizza sheet (at home I would have done smaller, round pizzas but for this many people a sheet pan worked better!)

For the pizza just follow the directions for the Daring Baker Challenge. Rehydrate some dried wild mushrooms, use your arugula pesto for the sauce, add mozzarella and some Parmesan and there you have an incredible pizza that everyone will like!

Hot out of the oven!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Arugula Pesto Pizza...and being sick!

Everyone here was sick over the weekend. T. started it on Friday. Youngest daughter Saturday morning and oldest daughter Saturday night and me Sunday morning! Thankfully it doesn't seem to be lasting very long. But I need sleep...lots of sleep. I am going to post and go to sleep!


Arugula Pesto Pizza

Favorite store bought pizza dough or crust or Homemade Bread Machine Pizza Dough
Arugula Pesto or Basil Pesto (store bought will be fine)
olive oil
shredded mozzarella cheese
fresh thin sliced tomato (laid on paper towel to help drain and dry a bit)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Shape pizza dough. Mix olive oil with pesto to thin it out a bit. Spread lightly onto pizza dough (you are using this in place of sauce). Add Mozzarella on top and tomato slices. Cook til cheese is hot and bubbly!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Arugula Pesto - who knew?

All the ingredients needed!

Who would have thought that when you Google Arugula Pesto you will come up with 51,800 items that relate to it. All I wanted to know is are the properties of it similar to basil???!!! I think maybe I have mention before that I don't really pay very well attention to things and if there are too many directions in a recipe there is no way that I am going to get through it!!! Just me I guess. I am sure it all stems from the concentration issues but I hate to do things that are too complicated. Cooking should be simple if you have wonderful, fresh ingredients to work with and I did! While reading a couple of recipes for Arugula Pesto what I found is that it is definately more bitter than Basil Pesto so I needed to counteract that with something. Some of the people suggested walnuts??? instead of pine nuts??? I decided that I was just going to go by taste so this is what I ended up with!

It is wonderful, fresh tasting with a hint of bitterness that will go so well with pasta and on sandwiches. I have been freezing my pesto flat in a Ziploc freezer bag.

Nice bright green arugula pesto

Dakota wondering what in the H*** I am doing?

Arugula Pesto

2 cups of fresh arugula
1/2 cup of freshly grated parmessan
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts (i just lightly toasted them in a dry pan)
6 garlic cloves (you can use less but I love garlic)
2 pinches of sea salt

Add arugula, Parmesan, toasted pine nuts, garlic,sea salt to the bowl of your food processor. Chop until well chopped and mixed. Add the Olive Oil slowly to the mixture. There you have it it Arugula Pesto!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com