Homemade pizza with mushroom, pesto and asparagus

A thin and crispy crust, gorgeous basil pesto, sliced mushrooms and fresh summery asparagus spears will take your homemade pizza to the next level!

I love this time of year – there’s so much delicious fresh food around that you have to make almost no effort to serve fabulous meals! 

Locally grown asparagus

Not far from where we live there is a fruit farm. They have a little shop where you can buy punnets of freshly-picked strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and other soft summer fruits. My daughter Kipper and I dropped in the other day, and came away with a big punnet of strawberries and another of raspberries. They also had some trays of local asparagus, from a neighbouring farm. We got a big bunch of those too.

Delicious asparagus pizza

We all love asparagus, but I wanted to do something a different than simply steam it and eat it with butter – delicious though that is!

I thought about making an asparagus pizza. Then I abandoned the idea as I thought the asparagus wouldn’t go well with the tomato sauce. Then I thought, why do I need to bother with tomato sauce? And everything clicked magically into place.

Additional flavours

I love asparagus and mushrooms together, and pesto makes everything taste good! So I was pretty confident about this mushroom, pesto & asparagus pizza. The weather was lovely and we ate it in the garden. I do think you can serve almost anything al fresco and it will taste better than it does inside!

Pizza dough – need to knead

I used my Kenwood mixer to make the dough, which is pretty effortless. However I’ve also made this dough by mixing and kneading by hand. It’s a fairly soft and easy-to-handle dough, so you shouldn’t have any trouble doing it that way.

It was a warm day when we made this homemade pizza. I put the covered dough out in the garden in the sunshine to rise. It didn’t take long at all. Otherwise, the airing cupboard or near a warm radiator usually does the job.

Homemade asparagus pizza – big or small

As you can see in the photographs, I made one big pizza which we cut into slices to serve. However, I’ve also made this quantity of dough into 3 or 4 individual pizzas. Either way, it tastes delicious!

Pizza toppings

For this recipe, I topped our pizza with readymade pesto, thinly sliced mushrooms, blanched asparagus spears, and mozzarella cheese. I think this is a great combination! Other pizza toppings that we enjoy include:

• tomato puree, dried oregano and mozzarella – simple but classic
• tomato puree, anchovies, olives, capers and onions – for a salty, savoury hit
• olive oil, garlic, chilli, caramelised onions and goats cheese – when we’re feeling fancy!
• tomato puree, sliced courgette (zucchini), mushrooms, peppers, onions, olives and tomatoes + cheese – for the full-on 5-a-day veggie pizza

You can really let your creativity shine when it comes to topping a pizza!

Summertime fun

Kipper is usually keen to help with pizza making, having fun arranging the toppings and sprinkling on the cheese. This time, I had to do it all myself. Kipper was out in the garden with DH, learning to play cricket. Happy summer days…

Fortunately, it was very little effort!

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📖 Recipe

Mushroom, pesto and asparagus pizza

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A delicious homemade thin and crispy pizza base, topped with pesto, mushrooms, and fresh seasonal asparagus.

5 from 7 votes

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Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine European, Italian

Servings 4 slices

Calories 397 kcal

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

For the pizza base

• 200 g plain flour
• 4 g instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil + extra for greasing
• 125 ml warm water

For the toppings

• 50 g mushrooms
• 1 large bunch asparagus
• 3-4 tablespoon pesto
• 150 g mozzarella or mini mozzarella balls

Instructions

 

To make the pizza base

• 200 g (1 ⅗ cups) plain flour, 4 g (1⅓ tsp) instant yeast, 1 tablespoon olive oil + extra for greasing, 125 ml (½ cup) warm water
  Put the flour, yeast and olive oil into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. With the motor running, slowly pour in the warm water a little at a time, until everything is incorporated into a dough. Add a little more flour or water if necessary so that the dough is neither sticky nor dry. Alternatively you can mix the dough by hand in a mixing bowl.
• Continue to mix/knead the dough for 5-6 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.
• Remove the dough from the bowl. Add a little olive oil to the bowl, return the ball of dough and turn in over in the oil to coat. Cover and leave in a warm place for 25-30 minutes, until doubled in size.

To make the pizza

• Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F).
• 50 g (2 oz) mushrooms, 1 large bunch asparagus
  Slice the mushrooms. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus & discard. Blanch the asparagus for 1 minute then drain and rinse in cold water.
• 3-4 tablespoon pesto
  Pat, stretch and otherwise coax the dough into a large rectangle – roughly 30 x 40cm (12 x 20 inches) – and transfer onto a baking sheet. Spread over the pesto. Lay the sliced mushrooms and asparagus on top of the pesto.
• 150 g (5¼ oz) mozzarella or mini mozzarella balls
  Cut the mozzarella into small dice. If using mini mozzarella balls, cut each one in half. Scatter the cheese pieces over the surface of the pizza.
• Bake at 220°C (430°F) for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is melted, the base is risen and cooked, and the asparagus and cheese are starting to char in places. Remove from the oven, slice and serve.

Notes

This pizza can also be prepared as 4 individual pizzas if preferred.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Mushroom, pesto and asparagus pizza

Serving Size

 

1 slice

Amount per Serving

Calories

397

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

17

g

26

%

Saturated Fat

 

6

g

38

%

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

1

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

5

g

Cholesterol

 

31

mg

10

%

Sodium

 

345

mg

15

%

Potassium

 

359

mg

10

%

Carbohydrates

 

45

g

15

%

Fiber

 

4

g

17

%

Sugar

 

3

g

3

%

Protein

 

17

g

34

%

Vitamin A

 

1331

IU

27

%

Vitamin C

 

7

mg

8

%

Calcium

 

243

mg

24

%

Iron

 

5

mg

28

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword asparagus, cheese, mushrooms, pesto

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More delicious asparagus recipes

More recipes using asparagus include

• gorgeous roasted asparagus
• delicious asparagus carbonara with sun-dried tomatoes
• tasty buckwheat crepes with creamy asparagus, beans and mushrooms
• summery griddled asparagus and other vegetables

We ate this delicious homemade pizza al fresco, which makes this mushroom, pesto & asparagus pizza a perfect entry into this month’s Family Foodies event, on the theme of Barbecues, Picnics and Outdoor Eating, organised by Eat Your Veg and Bangers & Mash.