Roasted vegetable pesto pizza

I have been obsessed with pesto and roasted vegetables this week. I made a large batch of homemade pesto and a huge tray of roasted vegetables last weekend. I didn't necessarily intend to eat the two together when I made the pesto and vegetables, but that is exactly what I have done all week.

I have only made pesto once before, but I think the recipe I followed on Saturday contained standard pesto ingredients: fresh basil, fresh italian parsley, olive oil, pine nuts, walnuts, parmesan cheese, and tons of minced garlic. The pesto tasted pretty strong when I sampled it on crackers, but spread on toasted garlic bread it was delicious.

For the roasted vegetables, I cut bite-sized pieces of cremini mushrooms, red bell pepper, squash, zucchini, and sweet onions, then tossed them with minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano. I roasted this mixture on a cookie sheet for about 20 minutes in the oven. I also made a separate batch of roasted eggplant slices on another cookie sheet following a similar procedure (thanks for the eggplant recipe, Kim!).

The idea to combine the pesto with roasted vegetables occurred on our first snow/ice day this week. I thought I would use the opportunity of being at home to bake, and the first thing that came to mind was to try making homemade pizza crust in my breadmaker.

Once the dough was ready, I placed a rolled out portion on the preheated pizza stone and prebaked it before adding the toppings. After about 10 minutes the dough was warm and light brown, so I pulled the tray from the oven and layered the following ingredients on top of the prebaked crust in this order: pesto sauce, fresh spinach leaves, roasted vegetables, cherry tomatoes (cut in half), mozzarella cheese, and goat cheese crumbles. Before I returned the pizza to the oven I grated some fresh parmesan across the top. Below is my pizza prior to baking. Check out the lovely mushrooms and spinach peeking out from beneath the cheese.

I baked the pizza at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese was melted and the pesto was starting to bubble around the edges. Below is the finished product just after I pulled it from the oven.

Oh my goodness, this was just delicious. I loved the pesto base for the pizza (the garlic flavor was awesome!) and the roasted vegetables added a subtle flavor, nicely melted beneath the cheesy topping. And the goat cheese added an interesting twist. Love, love, love pesto with roasted vegetables and cheese. I mean, really, what is there not to like with cheese and garlic?

The breadmaker pizza crust turned out OK. It was a little thick and doughy for my taste, but this being my first try I was pleased enough. If anyone has a good breadmaker crust recipe (or tips for a thinner, less doughy crust that I may have missed out on) I would love to hear them.