Pesto Mozzarella Pizza and salad

It has been SO long since my last Chefs Plate meal.  This was a great comeback meal if I do say so myself. ;D

Since my last time ordering from them, I noticed that Chefs Plate has made a few changes:  They no longer use bags of dry ice that can be reused; they use simply a bag of frozen water now = ice to keep the goods cold.  They no longer use small containers for the vinegar or sauces; everything is in small plastic packets now.  I guess they save money by not purchasing plastic containers.  Plastic baggies are more economical than containers, I’m sure.  They also no longer list their recipes as “easy”, “medium”, or “difficult”.  I wonder why that is?

All of the necessary items to make the dish

This Pesto Mozzarella Pizza with grape tomatoes and Parmesan was a vegetarian dish.  The prep time was 30 minutes and made for two portions.  It was a really easy and straight-forward recipe.  I loved how fast it was to make this and especially how delicious the end result was!

Pesto Mozzarella Pizza recipe card

All of the ingredients

First of all, preheat the oven to 500° F.  Have your dough on the counter at this time too so that it has time to rest (settle down and get to room temperature).  You’ll need the dough to be fairly rested before you can stretch it.

Pizza dough

Once the oven has reached 500° F, you can start stretching the dough!  Oil your hands and stretch the pizza dough into a round or oval shape.  I stretched mine to fit the rectangular pan.  Make sure your pan is oiled.

Stretching the dough as much as it can

After this, prepare the vegetables: tomatoes and shallots.  Cut the shallots into 1/8 inch thin slices and the tomatoes into halves.

Just two vegetables in this pizza: tomatoes and shallots

Next up, cook the vegetables with oil and then add the Tuscan Spice Mix (which consists of garlic powder and basil tarragon spices) and half of the white balsamic vinegar.  You’ll end up with some softened tomatoes and shallots that smell amazing with the reduced vinegar.

Cooking down the tomatoes, shallots, spice mix, and vinegar

Step by step toppings onto the pizza

Now, it’s time to stretch the pizza dough some more.  After letting it rest, you’ll find that the dough is now even easier to stretch.  Best of all, it stays in shape now.  Drizzle the flat surface with oil and salt and pepper.  Then the next part is the fun part: layer with mozzarella cheese, then the cooked vegetables, then pesto dollops, and lastly Parmesan.  (I ended up using only one packet of the basil pesto because I mistakenly thought that the second packet was an extra one but it actually was needed; it didn’t affect the end result though because the taste was great.)

Then, bake the pizza in the middle rack of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese has melted.  I set the timer for 13 minutes.  This was PERFECT timing.  I even saw the dough bubbling in the oven too.

While the pizza is baking, toss the salad and plate it.  The salad dressing is simply the remaining vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper (SO easy).  Add the spinach and sunflower seeds, and ta-da, the salad is done.

While pizza is making, prep and toss the salad

When you take the pizza out of the oven, season it with some pepper and then cut into wedges.  I forgot to take a photo of the pizza once it was all cut up; it was a beautiful sight.

Then plate and serve! 😀

All done!

This freshly made Pesto Mozzarella Pizza was superb.  It was so perfectly made.  The tomatoes were a little blackened from the oven heat, which made it even more characteristic and flavourful.  The cooked vegetables were tangy while the dollops of basil pesto enhanced a salty flavour.  It was a winning combination!  The crust was perfectly baked and not too hard.  The amount of cheese was perfect too; not too much and not too little.

Two portions

Best homemade pizza so far!

The salad with the sunflower seeds was yummy.  The sunflower seeds were so tasty that we ended up buying a container of them from the grocery store the next day.  Sunflower seeds are so nutritious and good for you too.

If you use my referral link to order Chefs Plate (hyperlinked here), you can get four free meals right away to try out this meal kit service.  They have plenty of recipes to choose from each week with pre-portioned and local ingredients so that you have exactly what you need to cook.  The flavours are also well-balanced and the recipe is easy to follow.  I’ve made over 20 Chefs Plate meals to date, and I know there will be more coming in the near future. 😀

There was more than enough pizza to serve three people