My ultimate lazy summer pizza is the caprese prosciutto pesto pizza! This easy pizza recipe is layered in pesto, fresh heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil! Easy to make and perfect for lazy afternoons but believe me when I tell you this pizza packs on some major flavor!

Hiiii!

Would you like to have a slice of caprese prosciutto pesto pizza with me?! I hope you say yes because there will also be lots of wine involved. Pizza and wine in July, sounds like a love story if you ask me.

Easy pizza recipes like this are peeeeerf for summer. When I say easy, I mean it. I used Trader Joes pizza dough (my all time favorite pizza tip!) and simple ingredients for a light and flavorful pizza. During the summer months the last thing I want to do is scarf down like a large-drowning in sauce-super meaty pizza pie. I save that for cold winter nights when I’ve been drinking. Doesn’t everyone?

So summer pizza is a little lighter around here but still mega flavorful. I wouldn’t have anything less!

When it comes to summer meals and dishes I will literally do anything to make a dish ahead or have it involve very few ingredients. I want to spend as much time as I can soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the outdoors and good company. We naturally seem to have more people over in the summer time. I have been all about breaking out our long dinner table whenever I can! And when it’s just the weeknight, Jared and I usually try and make the most of our evenings in the backyard or head out for fro yo. I save longer, slow cooking meals for the winter.

This pizza is a prime example. I’ve been trying to sneak in tomatoes in literally about everything I have been cooking. I’m sort of a tomato snob and I really only like to eat them at peek freshness in the summer months. I think winter tomatoes taste blah. Caprese salads are one of my favorite side dishes for hot months and I usually buy way too much tomatoes and mozzarella and have an odd amount of ingredients leftover. My first thought was to top them on a traditional salad but I felt like that was kind of boring… I almost always have some refrigerated Trader Joe’s pizza dough in the fridge so I whipped it out and the caprese pizza was born. Do you have a go to staple for semi homemade meals?! I would love to hear your secrets!

The base for this pizza is pesto! Swapping pesto for marinara made for such a nice summer touch. It made the whole pizza feel very herbal and light with fresh flavor. Next up was a random selection of cheeses. I had some mozerella balls left over from my Italian cheeseboard and a bit of traditional mozzarella. You could also use other cheeses like burrata and ricotta just make sure they are in the white Italian family of cheeses. My favorite part to this pizza is the juicy heirloom tomato slices. Because tomatoes are at peek freshness I felt like this made the pizza taste even better than marinara sauce would have. Plus, it’s like 1/8 of the calories which means two glasses of wine is totally acceptable.

Last but not least is fresh basil and prosciutto ribbons. If you are a vegetarian or just watching your meat intake feel free to leave the prosciutto off. Artichokes hearts would also taste equally as bomb.

There you have it, my 30 minute summer caprese pizza. Literally you will watch one episode of queer eye for the straight guy and you will have a delicious little snack or dinner for one. White or rose wine not optional, okay?! Okay!

'Lazy Girl' Caprese Prosciutto Pesto Pizza

Recipe By Elizabeth Van Lierde

Servings:

ingredients

1 Package of pre made pizza dough I live by Trader Joes
½ Cup of pesto
2 Heirloom tomatoes sliced
1 Mozzarella ball or mozzarella pearls or burrata or ricotta just get some cheese on the thing
4-6 Proscuitto ribbons/slices
5 Fresh Basil leaves thinly sliced
Balsamic glaze again, Trader Joes... are you noticing a trend here? You can be an over achiever and make your own here.

instructions

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Roll and stretch out pizza dough into a rectangle like shape on a nonstick cookie sheet.
Pile dough evenly with pesto, tomato slices, cheese and proscuitto ribbons. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheesy is melty and golden. Remove pizza from oven and top with basil ribbons and a light drizzle of balsamic glaze.

Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian