Lemon Pizza with Pesto, Prosciutto, and Smoked Gouda

This week I’m blessing you with a very special family recipe that is extremely dear to my heart. I hope you love it!

Scroll down for the recipe

Hello congregants!

How’s your August going? I spent the last weekend deep in the woods of Muskegon, Michigan. It was my first camping trip in two decades, and I absolutely adored every moment of star gazing, hammock naps, and the unbelievable rotation of foods all cooked on the open fire. We feasted on a seafood boil, Korean BBQ, carnitas nachos, biscuits and gravy, and hot, bubbly buffalo chicken dip, just to name a few. My contribution was, of course, an epic cheese plate, built and enjoyed on the beach. 

The aforementioned cheese plate, featuring Coupole from Vermont Creamery with Brin’s blueberry sumac jam and Carr’s crackers, Prairie Sunset from Roth with dijon mustard, sardines, Harbison with BBQ Pringles, Beecher’s Flagship Cheddar with Olympia Provisions summer sausage, grapes, dried apricots, dried figs, and some crazy Lays from H Mart.

Me cutting and plating on the beach. Only a little sand ended up on the cheddar.

The seafood boil. Very grateful for a circle of friends that match my freak.

S’mores made with Ikea’s ginger thins. I regret not adding a few crumbles of blue cheese to this, but I plan to amend that shortly.

Speaking of perfect summer meals, this week I’m blessing you with a very special family recipe that is extremely dear to my heart: Lemon Pizza with Pesto, Prosciutto, Honey, and Smoked Gouda. It’s my mom’s recipe, heavily adapted from one she cut out of an issue of Parade magazine years ago, and has since become a Kubick household staple. My mom makes hers with smoked mozzarella, but I use Gouda because I love how the gentle sweetness plays off the tart lemons. You can use either cheese here: just remember to check the label to make sure the cheese is physically smoked rather than flavored with overpowering liquid smoke.