Skillet Shrimp Pesto Pizza
Cast iron pizza over the fire, with pouch shrimp and pesto instead of a deli counter.
- calories
- 640
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 91
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 3, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 300 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 1 1/2 cups | premixed at home with the yeast and salt |
|---|---|---|
| Rapid-rise yeast | 1/2 packet | about 1 1/8 tsp; rapid-rise skips the second proof |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Honey | 3/4 tsp | or sugar |
| Lukewarm water | 2/3 cup | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | one for the dough, one for the pan |
| Cornmeal or semolina | 1 tbsp | keeps the crust off the iron |
| Jarred basil pesto | 1/3 cup | shelf-stable until opened; contains pine nuts and parmesan |
| Pouch or canned shrimp | 6 oz | drained; no cooler needed until it is open |
| Butter | 1 tbsp | packed in a small tub |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | or 1/2 tsp granulated |
| Lemon | 1 small | zest and about 1 tbsp juice |
| Low-moisture mozzarella | 4 oz | the shrink-wrapped block, not fresh |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Dump the flour mix into a bowl or a gallon freezer bag. Stir the honey into the lukewarm water, pour it in with 1 tbsp of the oil, and work it until there is no dry flour left.
- Knead five minutes on a clean surface, then leave it covered somewhere warm for 45 minutes. Near the fire ring, not in it.
- Set the skillet on the grill grate over a bed of coals, not flames. Melt the butter, add the garlic, and drop in the shrimp for one minute. Pull it all out with the lemon juice and zest stirred through. Wipe the pan.
- Oil the pan, dust it with cornmeal, and press the dough out to the edges with your knuckles.
- Spread the pesto, scatter the mozzarella, then the shrimp and pepper flakes.
- Cover the skillet with foil or a lid and cook 12 to 15 minutes over coals. The bottom is done when a spatula lifts a stiff, browned edge.
- If the top is still pale, hold a few coals on the lid for the last three minutes.
Camp pizza fails in one of two ways: raw dough under burnt cheese, or a crust welded to the pan. Coals instead of flame fix the first, and cornmeal under an oiled skillet fixes the second. Rapid-rise yeast is doing the other piece of work here, buying a single 45-minute proof instead of two.
The shrimp come from a pouch and the pesto from a jar, which is the whole reason this travels. Fresh mozzarella would flood the crust with water, so the low-moisture block is not a compromise, it is the better choice. Lemon juice and zest go on the shrimp off the heat, since heat flattens the zest and the shrimp are already cooked and only need warming.
Packing
Flour, yeast, salt, and cornmeal go into one labeled bag at home so camp is one pour. Oil and honey ride in dropper bottles. Cheese and butter live in the cooler; the shrimp pouch does not have to until you open it.
Variations
- No time to proof: a large flour tortilla in the oiled skillet takes the same toppings in six minutes.
- Sun-dried tomatoes or olives in place of half the shrimp if the pouch is small.
- A dutch oven with coals on the lid cooks this more evenly than a skillet if you are carrying one.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/shrimp-pesto-pizza