Veggie Garden Pesto Pizza

Published: Aug 20, 2021 · Modified: Oct 17, 2021 by Emily · This post may contain affiliate links · 38 Comments

This Veggie Garden Pizza Pesto recipe is the perfect summer or early fall recipe to use up those garden vegetables or to take advantage of the farmer's market. There is a homemade pesto sauce and it's topped with arugula for a fresh, healthy, and delicious pizza.

garden veggie pesto pizza on a pizza peel

This Veggie Garden Pesto Pizza is inspired by one of my favorite restaurants I used to frequent when I lived in San Francisco called Park Chow. It's no longer in business, but I've tried to recreate my favorite pizza and I think I got pretty close.

This pizza has fresh heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn, homemade pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese and is topped with fresh arugula. That's a lot of fresh ingredients! If you are looking for a way to use up your summer and early fall vegetables from your garden or just love veggies in general, this is the pizza for you!

If you love making homemade pizza, check out my Fig and Prosciutto Pizza recipe!

Ingredients Needed to Make Veggie Garden Pesto Pizza

All of the ingredients for this pizza are either fresh produce or made from scratch. But, if you don't want to make everything from scratch, you can use store-bought pizza crust and/or pesto.

The veggies I love on this pizza are heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, and arugula. This pizza tastes like summer!

You will also need cheese, of course. I used a pre-sliced fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is always a good idea on pizza, but you can use whatever cheese you love or have on hand.

What are Heirloom Tomatoes?

According to Bon Appetit, "The seeds are what make an heirloom tomato an heirloom tomato. They are passed down from season to season, taken by the farmers from the tomato plants that produced the best fruit. This process allows farmers to select for certain desirable traits like juiciness, size, shape, or color. Heirloom tomatoes are also often open-pollinated, which means that they are pollinated naturally, by birds, insects, wind, or human hands. No weird science-y genetic modification here."

Although heirloom tomatoes can look a little strange in shape and color, they taste unbelievable and have so much more flavor than your typical grocery store tomato, in my opinion. Since heirloom tomatoes have become much more popular over the years, you can find them in most grocery stores in the summer and early fall.

heirloom tomatoes in a bowl — Heirloom tomatoes from my garden!

Tools for Making Pizza at Home

A pizza stone is a must-have for making pizza at home. When you preheat the stone, it helps achieve a crispy crust. Having a pizza peel to move the pizza to and from the oven is also helpful and makes pizza baking safe...that stone gets hot! This set from Cuisinart has all of your pizza baking needs all in one!

Tips for Making the Best Homemade Pesto Pizza

I like to bake my homemade crust for 3-4 minutes before adding the toppings. This helps prevent a soggy middle, especially when using fresh tomatoes, and it also makes it easier to move the crust after topping.
For an extra layer of flavor, coat the fresh arugula with a light coat of olive oil before placing it on top of the baked pizza.
Use a pizza peel for an easy and safe way to place the crust on the pizza stone and remove it as well.
No pizza stone? Use a large baking sheet or pizza baking pan. There is no need to preheat the pan and make sure to adjust bake time as needed.

Other Fresh Ingredient Recipes to Check Out