I made this pizza based on this month’s Bon Appetit cheese article. An article about cheese you say? Yes, it’s incredible and if you even just like cheese you should get this issue! I didn’t use their dough recipe, I like my stand by and used the fresh oregano from the Jamie Oliver chicken dish and added it to the dough. One thing I tried that was different was I rolled out the dough to the pizza size, covered it, and let it sit for another 10 minutes - I think this really made the crust light and fluffy instead of cardboard like. I also did the cider fondue recipe in the article and used the other half of kielbasa from that for the pizza, another hit if you’re not serving vegetarians. Definitely an impressive movie night meal thats better than anything from Domino’s. Oh, and use the premade crusts to make this even faster.

In general, I like white pizza, but find it a bit dry. I wanted to do some sort of white pizza but with a sauce to keep it moist. I made my usual pizza dough recipe but added a 1/2 cup of parm for something different. The saltiness from the parm and the pancetta was enough, so don’t add too much to the squash purée. Here’s how I get ‘er done.

Serves 4

2lb butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 shallot minced

2 cloves of garlic minced

handful of basil

1 cup of parm

8oz fresh mozzarella

8oz ricotta

1 cup of pancetta - I had the precut stuff from Trader Joe’s. If you cut your own make sure it’s small and will cook easily on top of the pizza

Pizza Dough Recipe

Preheat oven to 500F

For Butternut Squash Purée:

1. In a large sauté or sauce pan, heat olive oil and add garlic and shallots. Sauté them for about 4 minutes. Add squash and let it get brown, about 8 minutes. Add about 1 cup of water and cover the pan. Let the squash cook until it’s tender and getting mushy.

2. Let the squash cool a bit. Transfer it to a food processor or blender. Add the basil. Blend the squash until it makes a thick purée. If it’s too thick add a tiny bit of water, or chicken stock.

3. Roll out your pizza dough to the size of your pan. Put the dough on the pan (this is important - you don’t want to be stuck with a heavy pizza on your counter and it rips during transfer.) Spread the butternut squash over the pizza, making sure not to get it too thick. Add the mozzarella, then ricotta, then sprinkle all over with parm. Finally, sprinkle the pancetta on top. Cook in your preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Pizza is so versatile - you can put anything you love on it, kinda like the burrito. Well in celebration of summer I made a pesto pizza with mushrooms and summer squash. I also like making my own pizza dough, and its really easy. Here’s a great basic recipe from Emeril. I usually add a touch more honey for a bit of sweetness. I also sauteed mushrooms, squash, and shallots together before I put them on the pizza, just to make sure they were cooked through and not too crunchy. I also made the pesto earlier in the week before the basil went bad. I just blend together garlic, olive oil, pine nuts (walnuts are cheaper and also great - I had pine nuts in the pantry) and the basil. The longer you let the dough rise, the puffier and thicker it will bake in the oven. I usually let it sit for 3 -4 hours before I roll it out. Have fun!