Sprouted Pesto Pizza

Last night we made almost all-local sprouted barely pizza. We used the sprouts we grew, the ricotta and mozzarella cheese we made from local raw milk, and our home made spinach pesto from last summer. Give it try...I promise you'll love it.

Sprouted Pizza Dough
* I found this recipe in Yoga Journal last spring...I've modified it a bit and in the past have used sprouted barely, sprouted dill, and sprouted alfalfa all with delightfully delicious success. Last night we used our sprouted barely.

You'll Need:
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast

6 tablespoons warm (110 F) water

¼ cup cold water

2 tablespoons organic olive oil

¾ cup organic whole-wheat flour

½ cup sprouted seed or grain of choice, chopped fine

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup organic unbleached white flour

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and set aside for 3 to 4 minutes. Combine the cold water and oil in large bowl. Add the yeast mixture, then the whole-wheat flour, sprouts, and salt. Gradually add the white flour to make workable dough.

2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for about 5 minutes, sprinkling a bit more white flour to keep it from sticking.

3. Put dough in oiled bowl and turn it once so that its surface is coated with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rise in warm place for an hour – you want the dough to double in size.

4. Form dough into flat round. Roll it out on a floured surface, turning it regularly to keep a round shape. It should be about 1/8 inch thick, and slightly thicker around the edges.

5. Place the dough on a lightly oiled pan and local, organic pesto and or local dried/canned tomatoes and home made cheese. Bake @ 450 F for 10 – 12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.


Our thirty-minute mozzarella kit helped us to make both the mozzarella and ricotta. I can rock out the ricotta, but if I'm honest, Allan is way better at making the mozzarella. And so it went last night...

Raw Milk Mozzarella

You'll Need:

1 Gallon of Raw, Local Milk or other non-ultra-pasteurized milk

1 cup water

2 tsp. citric acid

1/4 rennet tablet

1 tsp cheese salt

1. Dissolve rennet in water. Set aside.

2. In large pot dissolve citric acid in 1/2 cup water. Add milk and heat to 88 F over a medium heat. Make sure to stir often while heating milk. Once milk reaches 88 F, remove from heat and add rennet, stirring for a minute. Allow the curds to set for 10 minutes.

3. Use a large knife to cut the curds into 1 inch blocks, allowing the knife to reach all the way to the bottom of the pot.

4. Ladle curds into a microwavable bowl and drain off as much of the whey (liquid) as possible. If you don't want to use the microwave...shape the curd into a few balls and lower, in a ladle, into water that is heated to 185 F for a few seconds. Cover hands in heavy rubber gloves, and knead curd for 2 minutes. Repeat several times until the curd is smooth and shiny.

5. Microwave curds on high for 1 minute, remove and drain excess whey. Knead to smooth out the curds. Repeat several times until your curd is smooth and shinny. Add salt during this process.

6. Shape into one large mozzarella ball or make a few smaller ones. Cut and enjoy!
Once our cheese was ready, we chopped it into small pieces and mixed it with our ricotta. In a small pan we thawed the spinach pesto. When the pesto had thawed completely, we added all three to the rolled out sprouted barely pizza dough.After 12 minutes at 425 F - complete taste-bud and self-satisfaction heaven.

P.S. I've made this recipe - cheese and all - with clients and their children and all ages thoroughly enjoy the whole process. Believe me, I know at first that the thought of making your own cheese, sprouts, and pesto can seem overwhelming, but if you can bake bread you can make this local, sprouted, pizza. Children LOVE to watch the sprouts grow and see the milk becoming cheese - what a great way to connect to food, which I believe connects us to health and environment. Let me know how it goes.