Leftover Summer Veggie Pizza

I am not a fan of veggie pizza because the steaming chunks of onion, pepper, and black canned-tasting olives tend to fall off the pizza in chunks, leaving big cheeseless craters behind. And a cheeseless crater is not my idea of a good time. But tonight, I made pizza and realized we had some extra fresh sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli we needed to use.

This combo of veggies was delicious. Even William approved.

The veggies were small enough not to weigh down the pizza, and the addition of basil pesto gave the pizza a richer and fuller taste.

I started with one ball of freshly made whole wheat pizza dough.

Then I layered it with tomato-basil pasta sauce, herb-marinated mozzarella, parmesan cheese, tiny broccoli florets, fresh sweet corn straight off the cob, and halved cherry tomatoes. I drizzled lightly some basil pesto over the top.

I always assemble my pizza on a flat sheet pan covered with heaps of corn meal, which allows me to slide the prepared pizza straight from the pan onto the hot pizza stone in the oven without tearing the dough or spilling the ingredients on the oven floor while transferring it.

I bake it at 420 (our gas oven runs extremely hot, but if yours doesn't you might want to bake it closer to 500) for about 12 minutes. Let it cool a minute before slicing and eating. Yum!