Homemade Roasted Vegetable & Pesto Pizza

When I want a casual dinner or an easy lunch, I turn to making pizza at home.  There are some delicious ready-made crusts that make it so easy to pull together a flavorful pizza.  Once you find the brand of crust that you like, it’s all about the toppings.  One of my favorites is Pesto Pizza.

You can add any ingredients that you want.  I often just raid my fridge and pantry see what I have on hand.  I always have a pizza crust in the pantry.  I like the thin crusts such as this Ultra Thin Pizza Crust by Golden Home Bakery Products.     The crust resembles the flatbread pizzas you get at your local bistro.  They are in a sealed bag and last for a couple of months.  Since they are pre-baked, it doesn’t take long to cook the pizza.

Pesto Pizza Prep

I am a huge fan of roasting vegetables as it adds incredible flavor.  The pizza doesn’t take much time in the oven to melt the cheese and brown the crust so this is a great way to pre-cook your vegetable toppings.

I line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and sliced vegetables.  I drizzle olive oil over the vegetables and season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.  Bake at 400 degrees.

Oven temperatures vary but it takes approximately 20-25 minutes in my oven to get my vegetables to my desired taste.  I like the ends to be a  little charred as shown in the picture below.  The key is to slice your vegetables very thin and all approximately the same size so they cook evenly.

While the vegetables are roasting, place your pizza crust on your pan.  I like my round pizza pan that has holes in it to allow the crust to crisp up.

Spread Pesto on the crust.  I use the Kirkland Brand from Costco.

I purchase turkey Italian sausage in the casing.  I remove the sausage from the casing and brown in a frying pan with a little olive oil.

The third layer of the Pesto Pizza is the roasted vegetables.  Spread evenly over the pesto and sausage.

Top with shredded Mozzarella cheese.

Bake according to package direction for your crust.  Watch carefully when using thin crusts.  It doesn’t take long for the cheese to melt and you don’t want to over cook the crust.

I used tongs to slide the pizza onto my pizza board to slice.

Serve with crushed red pepper on the side.

What toppings do you like to put on your pizza?

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend.