Ah, summer…

Sitting on the porch in the early evening, watching the fireflies rising up from a field of fresh cut grass…

This being the middle of an Ithaca winter, I have none of that, but tonight’s dinner did at least answer the question of whether you can make a tasty pizza out of the lawn trimmings. It turns out that you can!

Ok, not exactly lawn trimmings, but pretty close.

We eat a lot of kale around here. It’s delicious and surprisingly versatile. Fun fact, I was actually cooking with the stuff when the only way to get it was to steal the garnish from the salad bar decorations.

Today was a kale pesto pizza, something that I am fairly sure I invented just now. It was worth the wait.

Kale Pesto Pizza

6 cups chopped kale, two cloves garlic, 1/2 cup olive oil: Puree with the ol’ stick blender, and by hand mix in 1/2 cup grated parmasean cheese, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, and a few shakes of black pepper and oregano. Don’t add salt, you probably won’t need it, and you can’t judge the salt well at this stage.

Place this on a fresh pizza base, whole wheat will match best with the strong taste of this topping. You can add bacon or fresh tomatoes as well, but we didn’t. Top with mozarella cheese and bake at 450 degrees (230 C) for 15 minutes.

That’s it!  We thought it turned out great, but if you think the kale taste is too strong, you could obviously add less, or use this as a topping to a traditional tomato base. You might also try gently frying the kale after it has been ground up, but before you add the parmesean.