Summer homemade pizza with pesto, chanterelles mushrooms and leek

Homemade pizza is a great thing. It has its own rules – it doesn’t have to look or taste perfect, but despite this, it always disappears quickly and it is kind of dinner treat. Sometimes it is very thin, crunchy like a flatbread; another time it is more like a thick, fluffy focaccia. What I like the most about it is the endless possibilities with the ingredients. It doesn’t have to be typical pizza with well known vegetables! I recommend experimenting and improvising a bit: with sauces (who said it always has to be a tomato sauce?!) and toppings – please think especially about the seasonal vegetables! With today’s pizza, I have opted for green, a bit spicy rocket pesto, accompanied by a delicate leek, aromatic chanterelles mushrooms and crunchy almonds.

And one more important thing in the subject of homemade pizza: ask your dad, grandma, cousin or friends to help, make it together. Someone will take care of the cake, someone will take care of the sauce, someone will take care of the additions – you will wrap your lunch really well and have a good time at the same time!

If you want to make similar pizza, but using different ingredients:

  • feel free to make pesto with parsley, basil, spinach or even green part of a radish bunch

  • replace the chanterelles with oyster mushrooms or portobello

  • instead of leek use thin slices of red onion

Proportions for two medium or one really large pizza

Ingredients for the dough:

  • 2 cups of wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup of warm water
  • 7g dry yeast (or around 20g fresh)
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of sugar

Ingredients for the pesto:

  • less than a package of rocked (a few handfuls, about 100g)
  • 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil (6 tbsp)
  • 1 tbsp of lemon juice / white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp of sugar
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 pinch of chilli flakes
  • 1/4 cup of cold water (6 tablespoons)

  • 3 handfuls of chanterelles mushrooms
  • 1 white part of the leek
  • 1 handful of almond flakes
  • freshly ground pepper

For serving:

olive oil / chilli / yeast flakes

  1. Using the given ingredients, knead a flexible pizza dough. Add the olive oil as the last ingredient. If necessary, sprinkle the dough with flour so that it doesn’t stick to the surface, but the inside it should still remain moist and bouncy (note: if you use fresh yeast, start by mixing it thoroughly in warm water with two tbsps of flour and a tsp of sugar. Set aside for five minutes before kneading the ball of dough)

  2. Leave the dough to rise for at least half an hour.

  3. In the meantime prepare the pesto. Roast the sunflower seeds in a hot pan for 2-3 minutes or until the kitchen is full of appetising seeds aroma.

  4. Cool the roasted sunflower seeds for a few minutes – we don’t want the hot seeds to make the rocket leaves “wither”.

  5. Using a blender, carelessly crush the sunflower seeds, gradually adding the olive oil.

  6. Then add the rocket leaves, lemon juice, salt, sugar, peeled garlic clove and chilli flakes. Blend everything briefly, just to combine the ingredients. Then add the water and mix again briefly. Try the pesto: add more sweet, sour or salty flavour if desired.

  7. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celcius.

  8. Thoroughly clean the chanterelles and leeks, then cut them into smaller pieces. Gently rub the prepared ingredients with a spoon of olive oil. That way mushrooms and leek won’t burn on the top of pizza and will be even more tasty!

  9. Stretch the pizza dough into one large or two smaller circles, sprinkling with flour. Transfer to a baking sheet covered with a baking paper, brush generously with pesto and arrange the topping ingredients. Sprinkle almond flakes over your pizza and finish it with freshly ground pepper.

  10. Put the prepared pizza in the oven for around 12-14 minutes. Serve it with olive oil. Tastes great when sprinkled with the nutritional yeast flakes.

Still hungry?