I’m really proud of this pesto. It was my first try and it came out really tasty!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A pizza crust (homemade or store bought… I used refrigerated pizza crust to save time)
• 1/3 cup pesto (recipe below)
• 1 cup (or more) of Italian cheese blend, or mozzarella
• 2 large tomatoes, sliced
• Pickled jalapeños if you’re into that… See how to make those here. 
• 1 tsp of pizza seasoning (I used some Italian seasoning, onion and garlic powder, some salt and crushed red pepper)

My crust said 9-15 minutes on 425*. So I baked it alone with the pizza seasoning on it for 10 minutes on 400* in my convection microwave. (Things always seem to take longer in there, especially pizza!)

Then I pulled it out, topped it with pesto, cheese, veggies (chicken would probably be delicious also!), and a little more cheese.

Bake it for another 15 minutes and it should be good! Now, if you’re using a regular size oven, you can probably do 5 minutes with the crust, add your toppings, and bake it ten more minutes… Oh the joys of cooking in a camper kitchen!

Now for the pesto recipe:

• 1lb kale, stems removed
• Lots of water
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup olive oil (you MAY need a little more, but you’ll know)

Boil the kale leaves for 3-5 minutes then rinse with cold water and drain well. To get the excess moisture out, I put them in a cheesecloth and squeezed. You could also use paper towels or a clean dish towel.

Now I just have a baby Ninja, not a big food processor, so I took an extra step here. I stuck everything but the kale in and pulse it until it formed a paste, using about half the olive oil. I took that out of the Ninja, then did the same to my kale, using the rest of the olive oil.

Once the kale was processed, there was room to add the nutty, cheesy paste back in and mix them all together. This is when I decided it needed about another tablespoon of oil, it was seeming a little dry.

This makes a lot of pesto. I used what I needed for the pizza then put the rest in a Tupperware and froze it. It’ll stay good in the freezer for about 3 months. I’ve also heard people freeze it in ice cube trays then transfer the cubes to a ziplock freezer bag, so you can use a cube at a time. Whatever works for you!