You know what you should make tonight? This Kale Pesto and Goat Cheese Pizza. With all of the cooking you will be doing tomorrow and with all of the cooking you have probably already been doing in preparation for tomorrow, you deserve something amazing and tongue tantalizing for like pretty much no effort.

Oh! This post also includes a recommendation for store bought Pizza Dough. I love to make homemade dough, but lets get real- I am usually not really interested in doing that in the name of time and sanity. I have also received questions about this, since lots of people do not seem to be overly impressed with the flavor of the Trader Joes crust that I often use. So, the other day I bought the fresh pizza dough at Safeway in the deli section, and holy cow- it is sooo good. I am not sure what the deal is, but the flavor was great, the texture was better- both chewy and crispy. I was totally impressed and will use this as my short cut dough from now on.

Ok, so anyways- Kale Pesto. This is garlicky and the teeniest bit spicy and lemony and while it is obviously loaded with kale, it’s not “kaley”. I know that is not a word- but do you know what I mean? There is no fresh cut lawn kind of flavor going on here. It is absolutely delicious on this crust and with hot melty goat cheese.

I am going to tell the truth. It was so good, that over the course of the day, I ate the whole thing and I had nooooo regrets. I think it would be a nice (and kind of light) meal for the night before pig out time. I would serve it with a green salad and some red wine. Good luck everyone with all of your Thanksgiving Preparation and enjoy the day!

To make this Kale Pesto and Goat Cheese Pizza, this is what you do:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Roll the dough out into a large oval and transfer it to a sheet pan. Drizzle the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and put it in the oven to bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden.

While the crust is baking, combine all of the Kale Pesto ingredients, (except for the olive oil and salt) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse them until well pureed.
Stream the olive oil in with the processor running and run until very smooth. Season the pesto to taste with kosher salt.

When the crust is finished par baking, spread all of the kale onto the crust.

Add the goat cheese in chunks to the crust and drizzle the pizza with olive oil.

Bake the pizza for another 8-10 minutes until the crust is very golden and the cheese is hot and a little melty.

Drizzle with a little extra olive oil (or truffle oil if you are feeling fancy!) and slice and serve hot.