Oh I’m so into this pizza these days, it’s a really tasty little gem and one of the finest veggie pizzas that I can recommend. And handily happens to satisfy my current lust (or obsession) for all things pesto. As regular readers will well know I’ve been on a bit of a pesto bender lately trying out many a permutation of the goodly green stuff. If you didn’t catch them there was my Pic n’ Mix Pesto and Stilton, Parsley & Walnut Pesto blog and the earlier Parsley and Almond one too.
Rocket Pesto happens to be up there with my favourites, made fairly classically with a couple of large handfuls of fresh peppery Rocket, lightly toasted Pine Kernels, Parmesan, Garlic, Olive Oil, plenty of Black Pepper and a handsome squeeze or two of Lemon Juice. Wonderful on pasta, but even more sublime smothered on a homemade pizza base then topped with fine slices of Courgette and crumbled Feta, baked and finished off with a scattering of fresh rocket and a drizzle of good olive oil. Oh joy. And just what I need to set things right at the end of yet another topsy-turvy day, of which seem to be happening way too frequently these days! But more on that in a later blog….
You could obviously use any variation of homemade or shop bought pesto for this pizza, you don’t have to stick with the rocket. But as per all my other homemade pesto blogs, if you’ve never made your own pesto then I urge you to try. It’s ridiculously quick and easy. And you’ll never ever buy another jar again.
Presuming that Rocket is considered a herb (?) I’m most delighted to be entering my Rocket Pizza to Karen of Lavender and Lovage’s Herbs on Saturday event. And as my pizza’s a made from scratch munch to Javelin Warrrior’s Made with Love Mondays challenge.
Double Rocket Pizza with Courgette & Feta
Great for Pizza Nights, Girly Nights In, Bigger Kids and Grown Ups, Family Suppers, Week-end Slowies, Vegetarians, Pesto Fiends
For the Rocket Pesto (Enough for 2 pizzas or 4 servings with pasta):
80g of Rocket, washed and dried
a clove of Garlic, finely chopped
40g of Pine Kernels, lightly toasted for a few minutes in a dry frying pan
40g of Parmesan, finely grated
80ml of Olive Oil
a generous squeeze or two of Lemon Juice
Salt & Pepper
For the Pizza (Enough for 2):
One quantity of Pizza Dough, I use Jamie’s recipe
2 tablespoons of Pesto, Homemade Rocket or any other homemade or shop bought
a small Courgette, sliced across to the approx. thickness of a pound coin (or euro)
100g of Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper
A squeeze of fresh Lemon Juice
a handful of Rocket Leaves and good quality Olive Oil to serve
Special Equipment: a pizza stone, pizza baking sheet or an ordinary baking tray/sheet
For the pesto place all the ingredients bar the salt, pepper and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse a few times. If you don’t have a processor use a deep sided bowl and a stick blender or a pestle and mortar. I prefer a fairly coarse texture so you might not want to go too crazy with the blitzing. Once you have your desired texture, taste and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to suit.
Pre-heat your oven to the hottest it will go and pop your pizza stone or baking tray in to warm up for a few minutes.
Roll out the pizza dough to your desired size and thickness. I personally prefer mine very thin. Place on the hot pizza stone or baking tray.
Evenly smother over the pesto, followed by the courgette slices then crumble on the feta. Season with a little salt and plenty of black pepper plus a generous squeeze of lemon juice.
Place in your extremely hot oven and cook until crisp and golden. This could be anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes! Our woodfired bread/pizza oven usually takes less than 5 minutes and the oven at it’s hottest around 10.
When the dough’s golden and crispy on the underside and the courgettes cooked remove from the oven and scatter over another handful of rocket leaves and drizzle with a little good olive oil.
Slice. Eat. Enjoy. You could always go Treble Rocket and serve with a Rocket & Parmesan Salad on the side.
And here’s some of my other pizza faves:
Pizza Puttanesca
Roasted Wild Mushroom Pizza
Chorizo, Potato & Rosemary Pizza
Chez Foti 
April 18th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
Great way to eat all your greens and still taste good! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
April 18th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
Pizza has to be THE best way to eat your greens in my book!.
April 18th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
Oh yes, I love it. I share your love of all things Pesto and arugula is one of my favorite pizza toppings, Delicious!
April 18th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
Why thank you. Homemade pesto rocks!
April 18th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
I love arugula/rocket (especially on pizza) but I’ve never tried it in a pesto – very cool! And this pizza sounds delicious and so flavorful… Thanks so much for sharing!
April 18th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
You’re very welcome JW! Arugula makes for a slightly peppery pesto than the more usual basil version, both sublime in my book.
April 18th, 2013 at 5:23 pm
You have a pizza oven??? Nooo! SO jealous! I do have a pizza stone for my BBQ/braai so tend to make them on that at weekends. This topping combo sounds gorgeous. I am increasingly favouring veggie pizzas so I’ll have to give this a go.
April 18th, 2013 at 7:22 pm
I actually think I prefer veggie pizzas on the whole. We do indeed have a pizza oven….which was actually an original bread oven but so happens to bake the best pizzas!. I have to admit to not always using it though, especially not in the warmer months as it’s stays hot for days!.
April 18th, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Another great pizza idea – and a good excuse to grow more rocket too! Have you ever made nettle pesto? I’m looking for a recipe now that I have a glut of nettles in the garden.
April 18th, 2013 at 7:25 pm
I haven’t made nettle pesto, but I’m sure you could just follow any basil or rocket recipe and it would be fine? I might just have to have a whirl at it myself!. Funnily enough I was planning on trying a nettle and wild garlic risotto in the next few days as I found umteem clumps of the garlic behind out house and we’ve always got nettles 🙂
April 18th, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Louisa, that looks scrumptious! I love arugula on my pizza! 🙂
April 21st, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Your pizzas are just tooooooo good! It’s not fair. I need my own pizza oven. I may have to move house just to get one… !! This one sounds wonderful. I am a huge fan of pesto on pizza so this would do it for me 🙂
April 23rd, 2013 at 9:28 am
Oh you should try, it’s a winningly comforting combo for me of homemade pesto, sweet courgettes, salty feta and peppery rocket – hate to think how many times I’ve made this in the last few weeks!
April 22nd, 2013 at 7:43 pm
I love rocket and with all this greenery I think this could just about be classed as a healthy pizza! I need to get into the habit of making pizza more often, it really is so easy and tastes so much better. I recreated our favourite pizza takeaway recently for a fraction of the cost and we both enjoyed it more as there was none of the bloating associated with the salt laden takeaway version. Thanks for sharing this recipe 🙂
April 23rd, 2013 at 9:24 am
Thanks Jen. Once you get into making pizza fairly regularly it really doesn’t take much time at all, and pretty fun to do on a weekend anyway. I’m particularly favouring pesto based pizzas at the minute, but then I am more than a little addicted to all things pesto still!.
April 22nd, 2013 at 7:48 pm
Ah, that pizza looks totally gorgeous and I know that it will taste that way, too. I love rocket and feta cheese anyway, but … eh … well, this pizza has all lovely bits and pieces in it. At times I can do my own pizza every week.
April 23rd, 2013 at 9:21 am
Why thank you! I’m a big fan of feta with anything really, but it does work particularly well on a pizza and much more interesting and tasty than mozzarella. Not many weeks go by without some form of homemade pizza in this house!
April 30th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
As always, you astound me with your fabulous ideas and stunning photos!Karen xxx
May 4th, 2013 at 8:42 am
Thanks Karen!
April 30th, 2013 at 11:10 pm
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