Fresh Tomato Pesto with Mushroom, Olive, Artichoke and Feta Pizza (Pizza Night!)

Sautéed mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts with feta and fontina over fresh tomato pesto

Those of you who subscribe to my blog via email or somehow grab the RSS feed [thank you!] were treated to an unwitting peek behind the scenes one week ago when the rough draft version of this post went live without my awareness.

When I was plotting out the pizza posts for July I’d tentatively scheduled this one for the first Friday. Then I thought of fireworks, changed my mind, finished up the Pepperoni and Yellow Squash pizza and scheduled it for the same day. I didn’t notice that I still had the draft of this pizza scheduled for later the same day, and didn’t even check that the pizza had posted properly when I first woke up. Nope, I went about my July 4th—packing and traveling to visit family, not even checking email until late afternoon when I was surprised to see the draft was live and sent out in my RSS feed.  Oops!

I wanted to get this pizza up because it uses Fresh Tomato Pesto and I think you should try your hand at making this tasty concoction at least once during tomato season. Even though the tomatoes in my garden are as green as the squash plants that have taken over, the nights are warm (for ripening) and we got our first tomato in the farm share this week. [I’m making a BLT out of it, not this pesto.  I have my priorities for the first tomato of the summer.]

Fresh Tomato Pesto is easy to make, stores well in the freezer, and can be used as a dip for chips or vegetables, a pasta sauce, or on pizzas. I’ve been sharing a lot of meat pizzas lately [just updated my Visual Pizza Recipe Index] and it’s past time for a vegetarian one.

For general hints, tips, and photo collages please check out my Pizza Primer post, a brain dump of all things related to making pizza in my home kitchen.  For a photo album of pizza dough troubleshooting tips, please see my FB page.

Fresh Tomato Pesto with Mushroom, Olive, Artichoke and Feta Pizza 

1 pound pizza dough
½ cup fresh tomato pesto (recipe here)
½ cup chopped artichoke hearts
½ cup sautéed mushrooms
⅓ cup chopped mix of green and kalamata olives
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1½ cups shredded fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you've got a pizza stone, just leave it in there, you won't really miss the inch of vertical space it takes up except for Thanksgiving Turkey or Easter Ham time, and if you're a vegetarian . . . well, easy peasy then, right? Use a cookie sheet if you don't have a pizza stone.
On an oiled piece of parchment spread out dough to the shape that rocks your world.  Spread pesto to the edges [if using previously frozen pesto, drain the accumulated liquid off the top first]. Top with artichokes, mushrooms, olives and feta cheese. Top with fontina cheese. Bake on the parchment for 5 to 8 minutes, until the crust has firmed up and slides easily off the parchment. Bake directly onto the pizza stone for another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

In the foreground is the kid pizza--half cheese half pepperoni--only 2 tonight

This post is shared with Hot Fun in the Summertime, What's Cookin' Wednesday, Fresh Foods Wednesday,