But, necessity is the mother of invention (and pizza is a necessity!).  In the past few months I’ve started noticing Naan bread in supermarkets – with the bread or fresh bakery items.  Naan bread, if you haven’t tried it, is a type of soft flatbread eaten in India and other countries – it’s available at most Indian restaurants and it’s delicious.  My husband and I started snatching it up and eating it as, well, bread.  As we continued to buy it, it occurred to me to vary its usage.

I started making Naan bread pizzas and my pizza-making dilemmas were solved.  Naan bread works perfectly as a pizza crust, albeit a non-traditional one!  The size we buy is perfect for a personal pizza, and there are usually 2-4 per package.  I’ve since made several with all manner of ingredients.  I started with the traditional red-sauce, cheese, and veggie combos but soon began to experiment.  One of our favorites included an egg on the top of the pizza (this may sound strange, but it’s fairly common in Italy) – the egg bakes to a lovely consistency in the oven, and the soft yolk is wonderful with the crust.  I used a whole wheat Naan bread, drizzled on olive oil,  a little chopped garlic and my other toppings.  Then, you crack the egg right onto the pizza and bake it at 375 degrees until the egg whites are just cooked through (roughly 10 minutes).

Another favorite non-traditional pizza topping is potatoes, also more common in Italy.  Add slices or chunks of roasted, baked, or boiled potatoes on top of your pizza (a great use of leftover potatoes).  I added mine to an olive oil and ricotta base and threw some leftover peas on top for color and extra veggies (I figured if I was going to be non-traditional – I might as well go all out!)  I seasoned with kosher salt, parsley, and oregano.  It was unusual, but delicious.  Next time you’re craving home-made pizza, give the naan-traditional kind a try!

Since I love pesto and have been eager to make one from scratch, that seemed like the perfect maiden voyage for my new toy.  I found a recipe for Penne with Pea Pesto on Gourmet’s website, and since I love the combination of peas and pasta, this sounded perfect.  If you’re familiar with pestos, then you know that the typical pesto combines basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil.  This recipe uses most of the traditional ingredients, but substitutes peas for the basil.

Aside from the learning curve with my new food processor, I found this recipe easy to follow and tasty.  I can’t vouch for how long it took me since most of my time was spent with the users’ manual, but I suspect that the 30 minutes estimated on the recipe (including prep time and cooking time) is fairly accurate.  The recipe produced a lot of pesto, so I think in the future I will probably divide it up into batches and use only some of the pesto with pasta (perhaps with a 1/2 or 3/4 lb of pasta instead of the recommended 1 lb) because I think that this pesto would also be a delicious addition to grilled cheese, other sandwiches, or grilled meat.  It had a lovely texture and flavor.  My only complaint was that when eating the first batch (when it was fresh), I found the uncooked garlic to be a bit too strong.  However, after reheating the pesto for leftovers, the garlic flavor was no longer overpowering.  This is a great go-to recipe for busy nights, and it’s healthy to boot.

Pesto is deceptively easy to make (assuming you have a trusty food processor that you know how to use!).  Once you know the basics, it’s easy to make new combinations – and there are plenty of pesto variations online that use artichokes or greens such as spinach or arugula, and many use other nuts such as walnuts, or even pistachios.  So many choices…tell me what kind I should try next!