A classic combination… Slow-roasting the tomatoes in the oven gives an intense flavor, adding depth to this Pesto and slow-roasted tomato pizza. Want to take it up a notch? There are SO many variations of this pizza you could try. I love pizza and the simplicity of mozzarella, pesto and oven-roasted tomatoes, however, there are infinite pizza combinations, so go forth and experiment!

a pesto and slow roasted tomato pizza on a round pizza board on a table

The vegetable garden has finally shown us some love last week after a rather dismal tomato season. We barely saw summer here, so while there’s been a couple of green tomatoes, there haven’t been a lot of edible red ones, until now. Normally my mid-Summer the garden is heaving with fresh produce, so we’re running about 3ish months late. Strangely, our chillis have been abundant and we’ve been picking constantly. The wonders of growing your own!

Tomatoes are the one constant in our Summer/Autumn garden until they get wiped out by the first frost, which is usually in the next week or two. So while we’ve been loving our fresh, just-picked tomatoes every day, the clock is ticking and it’s probably only a matter of days before it ends. Before it does, we’ve been living it up preserving and slow roasting whatever we’re blessed with.

Let’s get started. This is what you’ll need…

Firstly, to make my pesto and slow-roasted tomato pizza, you’re going to need a pizza base. My homemade pizza dough makes a beautiful, light pizza base. Or you could just cheat with store-bought dough.

Fresh produce – cherry tomatoes, brown onion, fresh basil

Extra-virgin olive oil

Pesto – I’m all for making things from scratch, but I’ve got to say, Roza’s makes the BEST pesto. And I ALWAYS have a jar in the fridge. That’s what I used.

Fresh Mozzarella cheese
Sea salt flakes for seasoning

The Details

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees celcius.
In a roasting pan, place cherry tomatoes and a 1/4 brown onion. Drizzle with the olive oil and give the pan a little shake to ensure good coverage. No need to cut the onion (or tomatoes), we’re just going to soften them in the oven. Pop the tray into the oven and slow roast for 1 hour. Remove them from the oven and set them aside.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 220 degrees celcius.
Roll out your homemade pizza dough on a floured surface. Transfer pizza base into a greased pizza tray, ready for topping.
Using the back of a fork, give the roasted cherry tomatoes a squish and place a layer on top of the dough.
Spoon pesto over the top of the pizza and finish with sliced mozzarella.
Bake pizza on the top rack in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the pizza crust is golden brown..
Remove from the oven and top with torn, fresh basil leave and a pinch of salt flakes.
Slice and Eat!

A quick note on slow-roasted tomatoes

I’ve got to be honest, I go weak at the knees for homegrown, slow-roasted tomatoes and am always looking for different ways to use them. Just squishing them with a fork instead of making a homemade sauce also cuts the prep time in half. In a normal growing season, we will be picking tomatoes for about three months of the year, so I always have a container of slow-roasted tomatoes in the fridge for salads, antipasto, or even just to throw in a stew for some added depth. You can find more about my slow-roasted tomato process here.

Tools you’ll need to make Pesto and Slow Roasted Tomato Pizza

What tools? It’s pizza! And pizza is one of those great dishes that really don’t need a lot. You can totally make the dough by hand (think of those kneading muscles!). At best you’ll need a pizza tray or pizza stone and a rolling pin if you are making the pizza base from scratch. for the roasted tomato sauce, you’ll need either a roasting tray or a large rimmed baking sheet.

Cook’s Notes

I like to use a good deep-dish pizza tray. I know they are a bit different from the flat ones every kitchenware store sells, however, there is a method to my madness… When O was smaller and wanted to cook, having sides to a pizza helped him know where the sauce should go. Hence we no longer have pizza sauce sticking to the sides (and sometimes creeping underneath) of the pizza tray.

Let’s crank it up a notch with these variations.

Have some leftover bbq chook in the fridge? Shredd a little and add to the topping. Pesto chicken anything is always a hit in our house!

Spice it up a lot by adding some fresh chillis finely chopped. Or a little with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

Switch out the basil pesto for a different variety to try some new flavor combinations. Maybe a red pepper, kale, and walnut, or beetroot pesto?

Add some sliced vegetables like zucchini, roasted red pepper, or sweet potato, and maybe a little fetta. SO MANY IDEAS!!!

A few more pizza and pasta posts…

Happy pizza-making!