The month of August has been a quiet one for us. And there’s been a lot of homemade pizza.
Expected guests had to cancel at the last minute, and plans changed. While you’d think this would be the sort of thing to discourage us, in fact, it’s been the opposite.
We’ve been enjoying the wide-open weekends with Tim’s homemade pancakes for breakfast, afternoons spent writing, and evening walks in the park, with impromptu trips to thrift stores and our favorite taco truck sprinkled in here and there.
The weather has even cooperated, moving from highs in the sweltering 100s to the far more reasonable upper 80s, making it a little easier to enjoy cooking in the kitchen again.
For years, Tim’s told me about his homemade Chinese food, and this August has been his chance to take a few hours in the kitchen to show me. I’ve baked cookies without recipes. We’ve slow-cooked vegetables in the style of Marcella Hazan.
And not once, not twice, but three times, we’ve made homemade kefir-soaked spelt pizza crusts, topped with peaches, spinach, and goat cheese.
In so many ways, August has contrasted with the months leading up to it, in which we hosted out-of-town guests and did quite a bit of traveling ourselves. To make up for the hours we’d be missing when we were otherwise occupied, we worked double-time beforehand.
As a result, we’ve been basking in the beauty of this August and its slow, steady schedule.
On most Tuesday nights, we share dinner with Tim’s brother, Nathan, who lives about a mile or two away, in Tim’s old house. By the time he arrives, we’re unpacking our CSA haul, a tightly packed bushel box of yellow squash and watermelon, sweet corn and tomatoes.
On one of these weeks, just after collecting our produce, I catch an image of a peach-topped pizza on Instagram. Despite the loot already filling our back seat, we make a beeline for the grocery store.
At home, we launch into our regular routine, with Tim slicing up ripe watermelon that we snack on while we divvy up the goods. Meanwhile, I mix together a pizza crust, letting it soak in the warmest spot above our oven.
By the time Nathan arrives, the August sun is lowering, and the house is filled with that late-summer twilight that turns everything golden and dim. Two pizzas are in the oven, one on a stone, and one on a baking sheet.
That first time was magic: crackery crust, sweet peaches, and the tang of goat cheese mixed with drizzles of honey.
We eat it on the sofa, piece after piece after piece, while flipping through channels on the TV, the three of us occasionally interrupting the programming to marvel at the way the crust holds up, or the way the edges have a faint hint of Saltine.
When Nathan leaves, it’s barely 8 p.m. Tim and I clean up the dishes and put away the leftovers. Then we take a drive, headed nowhere in particular, off to enjoy a lazy summer night with nothing to do.
I say to him, “This August has been like one long date! Enough that I almost feel guilty!” and he says to me, “I know.”
I hope the last weeks of summer have been just as relaxing in your household. Even if you’re running around with a busy schedule, mark a day on the calendar, and make this pizza for dinner one night. Enjoy those low rays of golden light, with a homemade dinner that features some of the best seasonal produce on offer.
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Peach, Spinach, and Goat Cheese Pizza with Kefir Spelt Crust
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 9-inch pizzas 1x
Description
Made with a homemade kefir and spelt crust, this peach, spinach, and goat cheese pizza recipe is a tangy, sweet combination for your next vegetarian meal
Ingredients
- 2 kefir-soaked spelt pizza crusts
- 2 tsp olive oil, divided
- 2 cups torn and lightly packed fresh baby spinach leaves (about 2 oz)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 peaches, thinly sliced
- 2–3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4–5 ounces crumbled goat cheese
- 4 oz grated Pecorino cheese
- 1–2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375˚F. If using two pizza stones, place them inside now. Otherwise, use baking sheets or pizza pans.
- Place two stretched out crusts on pieces of parchment paper. Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon olive oil.
- Toss torn baby spinach over the tops and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.
- Next, arrange the sliced peaches on top of the greens. Top with garlic and goat cheese. Sprinkle grated Pecorino on top.
- Place pizza crusts on the parchment paper carefully on the preheated pans. Bake for about 20 minutes if using a stone, 30 if baking on a cookie sheet or traditional pan. Drizzle with honey and serve.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegetarian
Keywords: peach, spinach, goat cheese, pizza, spelt, kefir
Cooking By the Numbers…
Step 1 – Prep and Measure Ingredients
If you haven’t already, make your pizza crust. You can use any recipe you like for this, but I prefer a homemade kefir-soaked spelt version for this recipe. You can also use our einkorn pizza crust with kefir.
All three times that we’ve made this crust, we’ve used kefir as the soaking medium, but yogurt should also work. You just may find the dough needs a little more or a little less flour, depending on the thickness of the yogurt you use. Start gradually, and mix it in as needed to get a smooth, uniform dough.
Tear the fresh spinach leaves into pieces.
Remove the pits from all peaches and thinly slice them.
Peel and mince two to three cloves of garlic. I like to use my garlic press for this.
Get out your microplane or box grater, and grate the cheese.
Measure out the remaining ingredients as listed on the ingredients list.
Preheat your oven to 375˚F. Place a pizza stone in the oven while it is preheating. If you don’t have a stone, use a baking sheet or pizza pan.
Step 2 – Assemble
With floured hands, stretch out two kefir-soaked spelt crusts and place them on pieces of parchment paper. Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon olive oil.
Once the oven is preheated and the stones or pans are hot, remove the pans from the oven.
Place each crust with the parchment paper underneath on a stone or baking sheet. This makes the transfer from counter to pan easy, with easy cleanup when you’re done!
Top evenly with torn baby spinach and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.
Divide the peach slices between the two crusts, arranging the slices on top of the greens. Top evenly with garlic and goat cheese.
Sprinkle each with equal amounts Pecorino cheese.
Step 3 – Bake
Bake for 20 minutes if using pizza stones, 30 minutes if baking on cookie sheets or traditional pans.
Drizzle evenly with honey. Slice and serve immediately.
Mad About Greens?
If you love your greens, you might want to think about changing them up – but beware of doing that with this recipe. Spinach is relatively sturdy leafy green, so it makes for a good base for this pizza.
You might also like to try removing the stems from some kale and using that as a substitute for the spinach. Massage it first with some oil or in a bowl of hot water for a more tender texture.
If you are thinking about using arugula or mixed salad greens instead, keep in mind that these will wilt in the oven, too much to be enjoyable in my opinion. Wait to add them to your pizzas until just before serving.
For all you pizza lovers out there, here are some more recipes to satisfy that craving:
- Pesto with Goat Cheese, Kale, and Mushrooms
- Campfire Pizza
- Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, and Pesto
- Einkorn Tomato and Basil Pizza Pastry
And if you want something far easier than messing with raw dough, try using naan bread instead! It’s already cooked, and a perfect base for any topping, like a Caprese-inspired grilled flatbread.
Do you use a pizza stone when you make homemade pizza? Tell us in the comments below. Once you try this recipe, be sure to come back to give it a rating to let other readers know how much you enjoyed it!
Photos by Meghan Yager, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published on August 24, 2012. Last updated: June 30, 2020 at 10:13 am. With additional writing and editing by Meghan Yager and Allison Sidhu.
Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Shanna Mallon
Shanna Mallon is a freelance writer who holds an MA in writing from DePaul University. Her work has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including The Kitchn, Better Homes & Gardens, Taste of Home, Houzz.com, Foodista, Entrepreneur, and Ragan PR. In 2014, she co-authored The Einkorn Cookbook with her husband, Tim. Today, you can find her digging into food topics and celebrating the everyday grace of eating on her blog, Go Eat Your Bread with Joy. Shanna lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with Tim and their two small kids.
I have GOT to get over my dislike of goat’s cheese. I know. I know. Can we still be friends? Beautiful pictures!
Ha! I’ve heard that if you taste something 20 times, you’ll overcome any aversion (I’m on taste five or six with olives… must conquer!). : )
Do you put the pizza on the stone still on the parchment, or slide off the parchment and onto the stone? I’m fascinated by the idea of using yoghurt in the crust, will definitely be trying this out!
Hi Katie, We put the pizza on parchment and then on the stone, mostly because it makes transporting the thin dough simpler. A tool that makes this process really easy is a pizza peel my brother-in-law gave us last year. It’s kind of like this one, available on Amazon.
I just came across this recipe for plum and mascarpone flatbread with caramelized balsamic glaze on Sweetsonian, and thought it would be a great combo for this fantastic pizza crust of yours!
when does the soaking come in? do you mix all the ingredients then let it sit in the fridge before you let it rise? or is the 1-2 hour rise the soak as well? probably a silly question…
It’s not a silly question, Ashley — we’re considering the hours where the ingredients sit together as a soaking time. They allow the bacteria in the kefir to feed off the grains. You could soak it longer in the fridge if you like, too.