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This epic basil pizza is all about this fresh herb! It’s got a thick layer of savory basil pesto and is topped with loads of fresh leaves.

Basil Pizza
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Are you basil obsessed? There’s nothing better than the peppery fresh flavor of this bright green herb. So get ready to take everything that’s incredible about basil and eat it as a pizza topping. That’s right: Everything Basil Pizza! (Get it? Like Everything Bagel?)

That means garlicky, thick homemade basil pesto slathered onto perfect pizza dough, topped with gooey mozzarella and a huge handful of fresh basil leaves. It’s the brightest green, tastiest basil pizza you’ll make. We love making this one for our weekly pizza nights!

Homemade pesto vs store-bought

This basil pizza and looks best with homemade basil pesto. Of course, this isn’t always possible to have fresh basil on hand and time to make homemade pesto. If you’re using the jarred variety, keep this in mind: the flavor and quality of jarred pesto varies greatly between brands. 

  • Homemade pesto has the best flavor and bright green color. Make a batch of basil pesto if you can. You can also try cashew pesto or walnut pesto to vary the nuts.
  • Purchased pesto brands vary greatly in flavor (a spritz of lemon juice can help). Each different brand has a different salt and acid level, and some taste very bitter and acidic, which can overwhelm a dish. Adding a spritz of fresh lemon juice can help to improve the flavor.
  • Or, try refrigerated fresh pesto (in the produce section). This type of pesto tends to have better flavor than pesto in jars.
Basil Pesto Recipe

Tips for the pizza dough

The other major step in this basil pizza is making pizza dough! To shortcut the time, you can also use store-bought dough. But for the very best basil pizza, our homemade pizza dough is a must. It’s the perfect texture: fluffy and chewy on the inside, and crispy on the outside. Here are a few things to keep in mind with pizza dough:

  • Pick your dough recipe. Our favorite is our master pizza dough recipe, which has the perfect chewy texture. Another option is our thin crust pizza dough, easy to roll out into a thinner, crispier crust.
  • The dough requires a 45 minute rise, so plan ahead. Kneading the dough takes only 8 minutes. So most of the time required for making pizza dough is letting it rise! Start making it about 1 hour before you’d like to eat your pizza.
  • Stretching the dough takes a bit of practice. Pizza dough requires a little bit of finesse is shaping the dough. Pat the dough into a circle, then drape it on your knuckles to stretch it. If the dough ever becomes transparent, stop immediately and set it down for a minute. Once you pick it up again, the gluten will have relaxed and it will be easier to stretch.

Pizza making tools

You’ll also need a few tools to bake your perfect pizza dough:

  • Pizza stone: A pizza stone is what makes Italian pizza crust crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Here’s the best pizza stone we’ve found, plus care tips.
  • Pizza peel: What’s a pizza peel? It’s a paddle used to slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. We recommend this Standard pizza peel or this Conveyor pizza peel.
Basil pizza

Tip: add basil after baking

Once you’ve got your basil pesto and pizza dough, this basil pizza is a breeze. Simply spread a layer of pesto onto the crust, and mozzarella and Parmesan cheese on the top. We added a sprinkle of dried basil for good measure, but it’s not necessary for flavor.

How to keep the basil leaves beautifully bright green? Place them on the pizza after baking it. Baking a pizza with basil leaves on top makes them turn a sad shade of black. Yes, don’t even think about baking those delicate leaves! You can see in the photo above that some of the basil is already getting a little black in spots because of the heat of the pizza.

Basil pizza

How to store fresh basil

Of course, growing your own basil is much cheaper and easier than buying it from the store. You don’t even need garden space to do it: just a sunny ledge! Go to How to Grow Basil for more.

Make sure to store cut basil in a mason jar with water. Find a large jar and add a bit of water in the bottom. Then place the basil stems in cut side down and cover with a lid. Store in the refrigerator and it will last for 4 to 5 days, instead of just hours on the counter! See How to Store Fresh Basil.

Dietary notes

This basil pizza recipe is vegetarian.

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Everything Basil Pizza

Basil Pizza
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This epic basil pizza is all about this fresh herb! It’s got a thick layer of savory basil pesto and is topped with loads of fresh leaves.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Yield: 8 slices 1x
  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Make the pizza dough: Follow the Best Pizza Dough or Thin Crust Dough recipe to prepare the dough. (This takes about 15 minutes to make and 45 minutes to rest.)
  2. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F. OR preheat your pizza oven (here’s the pizza oven we use).
  3. Prepare the toppings: Make the Best Basil Pesto (or Cashew PestoWalnut Pesto, or Vegan Pesto). Thinly slice the fresh basil (or keep it whole if you like).
  4. Bake the pizza: When the oven is ready, dust a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet or the back of a rimmed baking sheet. But a pizza peel is well worth the investment!) Stretch the dough into a circle; see How to Stretch Pizza Dough for instructions. Then gently place the dough onto the pizza peel.
  5. Spoon the pesto onto the dough and spread it out with the back of the spoon. Then top with the mozzarella cheese in an even layer, then the Parmesan cheese. Add a pinch of dried basil and if you like, a sprinkle of kosher salt. (Most pesto is salty enough, but it depends on your pesto and cheese.)
  6. Use the pizza peel to carefully transfer the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza until the cheese and crust are nicely browned, about 5 to 7 minutes in the oven (or 1 minute in a pizza oven).
  7. Top with the basil leaves. Slice into pieces and serve immediately.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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  1. Amy Chung says:

    Yum! I was looking for simple pizza recipes and I found yours. Love it.