Afghan Pesto Pizza

A few days after the kofta pizza, it was time for our second Afghan pizza! I used the same recipe page from Afghan Culture Unveiled, this time for the pesto pizza. I hadn't been sure originally if I was going to make both or just the kofta one, but we had a bunch of cilantro laying around, which was a main ingredient in this pesto, so it made a lot of sense to make this too.

Instead of making my own pizza dough or even using a ball of pre-made pizza dough, this time I opted for some prepared pizza crusts from Trader Joe's. That saved a lot of time and effort, since I didn't even have to let the dough sit or roll it out. I had never tried these before, and they barely fit into our reusable bags and our fridge, but now having tried them, I am a fan since they are incredibly convenient.

The pesto consisted of a bunch of scallions, a lot of cilantro, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. In the 1.5-year span since we first did our Afghan food exploration, we became proud owners of an immersion blender, which was perfect for making this (and which I probably would use in the future if we were making something like the shor nakhod again).

The last component (besides the cheese topping) was a combination of yogurt and feta cheese designed to mimic quroot, since I had no idea where to find that and the recipe recommended this combo as a substitute.

The yogurt sauce went on top of the crust, followed by the pesto, and then the whole pizza was topped with mozzarella cheese. Everything together was amazing. I was so impressed by the combination that I knew immediately that I would want to make this again sometime. The pesto just had so much flavor, and it was different from any other pizza or flatbread we'd had before. Although we were eating a lot of pizza in a very short time, I was glad that we had expanded the AtWCC to add a pizza for each place, because we had already had two great pizzas!