Love pesto? Love pizza? This pesto pizza with green beans is for you! Classic tomato sauce is swapped for delicious basil pesto. This is not a pizza rossa – nor a pizza bianca. It’s a pizza verde! And to up the green factor and blink an eye to the original pesto pasta recipe we’re topping it with green beans. And parmesan flakes!
Yes, yes, green beans do feature in authentic pasta al pesto from Liguria. Potatoes, too. As surprising as it may seem, it’s a divine combo. Potatoes give the sauce extra creaminess and the green beans give both flavour and texture. You should definitely try pesto pasta with potatoes and pesto potato salad with green beans!
In this post I’m bringing you another fantastic way to enjoy pesto, that is on pizza. And before you even start doubting, yes, this is an authentic Italian recipe. As unusual as it may sound, pesto instead of tomato sauce does feature on Italian pizza menus, especially in its home of Liguria and neighbouring regions.
Pesto pizza ingredients
For detailed quantities please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Your favourite store-bought pesto is great, but homemade is always better. Try this easy basil pesto with a hand blender – a batch makes enough to use on 2 pizzas.
As for the pizza dough, if you have a trusted store-bought dough go ahead and use that. If you want to go homemade on the dough, too, my easy pizza dough recipe is perfect for one pizza. Have time for a long fermentation and want to make a bigger batch of dough? Definitely give my poolish pizza dough a chance!
Step to step instructions
Bring a small pot of water to the boil. Add salt and green beans. Cook for 5 minutes, then drain. Add a sprinkle of salt and 1 tsp olive oil, toss.
Stretch pizza dough to desired thickness. Spread basil pesto evenly on top. Place green beans over the pesto and top with diced mozzarella. Add the pine nuts.
Bake in the pre-heated oven at 250°C (480°F) for 8-10 minutes or until the sides and cheese have nicely browned. Take the pizza out of the oven and top with parmesan flakes and a swirl of olive oil.
More pizza!
Hosting a pizza party and want to make them all different? Here is some pizza inspo for you:
- Mixed mushroom pizza with whipped goat cheese
- Eggplant parmesan pizza with fried eggplant slices
- Leek and mascarpone pizza bianca
- Garlic mushroom pizza bianca
- Pear and blue cheese pizza bianca
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Basil Pesto Pizza With Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 ball pizza dough homemade or store-bought
- 80 g basil pesto
- 125 g mozzarella diced
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 20 g parmesan flakes
- 10 green beans
Instructions
- Bring a small pot of water to the boil. Add salt and green beans. Cook for 5 minutes, then drain. Add a sprinkle of salt and 1 tsp olive oil, toss.
- Stretch pizza dough to desired thickness. Spread basil pesto evenly on top. Place green beans over the pesto and top with diced mozzarella. Add the pine nuts.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven at 250°C (480°F) for 8-10 minutes or until the sides and cheese have nicely browned. Take the pizza out of the oven and top with parmesan flakes and a swirl of olive oil.
