Green Tomato Pizza with Pesto and Feta

This vegetarian pizza showcases green tomatoes at their finest--topped with feta and mozzarella cheese on a garlic scape pesto-spread crust.

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Friday nights are pizza nights around here, and I'm always looking to what vegetables are in season to add to our pizzas. After trying a fried green tomato sandwich with goat cheese at a local restaurant, I decided to throw some different cheeses on top of sliced green tomatoes and see if I could make a tasty vegetarian pizza. This one turned out well--the pesto complements the cheeses nicely and perks up the green tomatoes in a pleasing way.



September may make some folks think of All the Pumpkin Spice All the Time, but for me September means Green Tomato Season. While I've had a terrible year tomato-wise in my garden (more than made up for with terrific pickling cucumber and tomatillo harvests) I do have plenty of green tomatoes still on the vine.

Cooler nights mean that those tomatoes will ripen much slower than in the heat of summer . . . so why not make good use of green tomatoes?  No matter if you grow them yourself, find them in your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box, pick them up at the farmer's market or come home to a basket on your doorstep from an overwhelmed neighbor--get your mittens on some green tomatoes this month.



The main thing I make with green tomatoes is my Green Tomato Bacon Jam. It's a freezer jam, sweet and savory, and I think it is amazing mixed with ground meat for burgers. I put up several jars in the Fall and try and use the last one up mid-summer. I also like to make chili with green tomatoes, and have shared 2 recipes so far--one with beef and one with pork. Pork pairs pretty nicely with green tomatoes  in my Cabin Casserole, too.

For all of my green tomato recipes, please check out my Green Tomato Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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Note: I've used Garlic Scape Pesto in this pizza because that's my favorite type of pesto and I put up a bunch of it each year. My garlic scape pesto recipe is here. Please feel free to use the pesto of your choice. You can also see that I'm using store bought pizza dough--feel free to make your own or buy some. It's all good. The point is to enjoy a pizza with your loved ones, not to stress about yeast and stuff. And if your tomatoes started to turn while you were setting up the photos? No worries.

Green Tomato, Pesto, and Feta Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 pound pizza dough (see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index for ideas)
• olive oil for brushing on the crust
• 2 Tablespoons prepared pesto (I'm using my Garlic Scape Pesto but you do you)
• 2 medium green tomatoes, sliced thin
• ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1+½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• optional--a pinch of crushed red pepper or Italian seasoning

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, letting the oven hang out at that temperature for a good 30 minutes or more. If you've got a pizza stone, preheat that at the same time. If not--you really ought to get one. While the oven is preheating, feel free to peruse my Pizza Primer post. Chock full of good info, that one.
2. On an oiled piece of parchment paper stretch out the dough into the shape it feels like assuming. Brush crust with olive oil.
3. Spread pesto across crust. Add tomatoes and cheeses. Add a pinch of optional seasonings if you want to jazz things up a bit.
4. Bake, on parchment paper in preheated oven, for 5 to 7 minutes. Shimmy the pizza off the parchment and bake--directly on the pizza store or on a cookie sheet--for another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheeses are bubbly and beginning to brown.
5. Cool on a rack for a couple of minutes, then slice and serve.

I was taking my plate all over to get decent light. Finally found some.