It's been hot in Costa del Sol, and when the temperature closes in to 40C there is this strange sensation of sitting near a wood stove during the winter, because of this omnipresent scent of something like burning wood or pine needles in the air, and you can feel the heat in your face, except that you're walking outside in the open air and it's not cold at all and just mind blowingly hot. I'm not going to be ridiculous and even use the word 'warm' because who is anyone trying to kid in this kind of weather? It's not warm anymore at 39C. It's damn hot...so hot that when I walk indoors again I feel like I don't even have to turn on the air conditioner because the coolness radiating from the marble floors of my home is soothing enough. That's how hot it is these days.
This is pretty much my excuse now for being remiss about cooking. I do bake sourdough bread every Monday and make tomato sauce and do other basic things to ensure I'm eating well, but I really don't feel like doing much more than that.
So here's something nice and easy for those of you who are also wilting in the heat. Nothing special and I'm sure many of you have made some version of this before, but it's a delicious classic nonetheless, and very easy to make.
Shrimp Pesto Pizza
1 Pizza - Serves 2
1 Portion Pizza Dough
500g Boiled Shrimp/Prawns (shelled)
Pesto Genovese
Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
1 Dried Red Chili
Step 1: Marinate the boiled, peeled prawns in extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic and dried red chili for at least 30 minutes.
Step 2: Roll out the pizza dough and put a layer of basil pesto on it.
Step 3: Put the marinated shrimp all over the pizza.
Step 4: Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the pizza and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or however long it takes your pizza to bake.
We used the recipe we always use from the old Cook's magazine and purchased boiled shrimp, which we peeled and then marinated, and Buittoni's fresh pesto (the kind that needs to be refrigerated), but if you have fresh basil growing in your garden, pine nuts and parmesan cheese - by all means - make your own pesto. Unfortunately in my part of the world, it's not easy to come by large amounts of fresh basil leaves, so making pesto would require that I grow my own basil in huge quantities on my sunbaked balcony first!
Some people have suggested putting other things on this pizza but if you're a shrimp/prawn lover believe me - you'll love it just the way it is....and this is why we've put 500g of shrimp on one pizza.
7 comments:
Sounds really scrumptious Murasaki. Love the shrimp in there.
I love pizza w shrimps, but you know, I find it has been too hot/warm even to put on the oven lately :-)
Me too!! I love pizza with shrimp! and I love pesto too!! pesto and pizza is not a regular thing here. It's the usual pizza sauce so i would gladly welcome something different.
Elra: I love shrimp too and won't put anything else on my pizza but shrimp and more shrimp. ;)
Dorte: Indeed. It's really difficult to keep the food blogging warm in this weather. It's insanely hot!
Peachkins: This really is easy to make and surprisingly delicious. :)
Send some of that warm weather over here! The pizza looks good - I'll have to try one with a pesto base.
I so know what you mean. Today is very muggy here in NY and it just occured to me I have nothing in mind for dinner.
I had thought pizza- maybe it would dry the air. I dont know. I dont even feel like making dough right now. So bravo for you to keep up your bread baking and pizza making.
I'm catering a wedding tomorrow and I just made more pesto than necessary, I think I'll use up the leftovers with a pizza like yours, great idea!!!
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