The first time someone suggested pistachio pesto as a pizza base instead of tomato sauce, I was skeptical in the way you're skeptical before something completely rearranges your expectations.
This is a Sicilian thing. Not a trend. Not a twist. The combination of pistachio and cheese on a thin, crisp base has been happening in Catania and Bronte for longer than any food magazine has been writing about it.
Skip the tomato sauce entirely.
Ingredients
- 3–4 tablespoons Tutto Sicilia Sicilian Pistachio Pesto
- 1 pizza dough ball (your favorite, homemade or shop-bought)
- 150g fresh mozzarella, torn
- 50g bacon or prosciutto crudo (optional but very good)
- A handful of shelled pistachios, roughly crushed
- Any assortment of fresh greens — zucchini ribbons, arugula, spring peas, and basil
- Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to its highest setting — usually 500°F — with a baking stone or heavy tray inside.
- Stretch your dough on a floured surface to your preferred thickness.
- Spread the pistachio pesto evenly over the base, leaving a small border.
- Scatter the torn mozzarella over the top.
- Slide onto your hot stone or tray. Bake for 10–12 minutes until the crust is charred at the edges and the cheese is bubbling.
- The greens? You can add before you put the pizza in the oven for a more charred, softer veg or near the end if you still want your greens bright and fresh.
- Toss the prosciutto crudo and crushed pistachios over the greens as soon as you take out of the oven.
Nonna's Notes
Add more pistachio pesto than you might think, go with what feels right.
The pesto goes straight on as the sauce. Rich, nutty, deeply flavoured. You build on top of it the way you would any pizza — mozzarella, something salty, something fresh to finish. What comes out of the oven smells like somewhere you want to be.
Use whatever dough you like — homemade if you have it, shop-bought if you don't. The pesto is the point.
Once you've made this, you'll look at a jar of pistachio pesto differently. It's not just a pasta sauce. It's a base, a spread, a reason to make pizza on a Wednesday. It feels fresh, it feels easy.
That's the thing about Sicilian pantry ingredients — they don't have one job.
→ Shop Sicilian Pistachio Pesto
Once you've made this, you'll look at a jar of pistachio pesto differently.
