Butternut Squash Pizza

I love the Fall.

Crisp.

Blue skies.

Gold and red leaves sprinkling the yard.

It just makes me hungry for warm.

It makes me just want cozy for dinner.

Like soup.

Or scalloped anything.

Or bubbly white pizza oozing with fall flavors like butternut squash or pumpkin.

Yes. Winter Squash Pizza. I said it.

If you’ve been limiting yourself to traditional tomato sauce pizza, I’m here to remind you have pizza dough, garlic and cheese, your options are endless. Don’t get stuck in a rut.

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 of a large Butternut Squash (peeled, cut into long strips)
1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil
Sea Salt (to taste)
2 cloves of Garlic (peeled and chopped fine)
Pizza Dough (we buy ours from a local bakery, but Ina Garten has an easy homemade version if you have an extra 30 minutes to make your own)
1 tablespoon organic corn meal/polenta
3/4 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese (or a blend of Mozzarella, Asiago and Parmesan … use what’s in your fridge)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. (I put my roasting pan in the oven at this point with 1/4 cup of the Coconut Oil to let the oil melt down while I peel and slice the butternut squash.

I love this picture because it looks like a big pile of cheddar cheese

… I went one step further and sliced the long pieces in thirds again (lengthwise).

Carefully remove your hot roasting pan from the oven and toss the butternut squash slices in the now-melted coconut oil. Sprinkle with sea salt, and it goes back into the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, turn the squash and cook for 5 more minutes (until the squash is cooked through and tasty).

Remove the squash from the oven and use a slotted spoon to get it out of your roasting pan.

Turn the heat up in your oven to 500 degrees and if you are using a pizza stone, put it in the oven to heat up.

Oh … and watch out for squash thieves …

I put my roasting pan right on top of the stove for the next bit, over a burner on low. Add an additional heaping tablespoon of coconut oil and the chopped garlic and let the oil get all bubbly, the garlic translucent and soft (about 2 minutes). The reason that I use the roasting pan (as you can see) is because some little leftover bits of squash work their way into the oil and it just makes it all goodness.

When your oven hits 500, remove the pizza stone, sprinkle it with corn meal and roll out the pizza dough.

Add the coconut oil-garlic mixture like you would tomato sauce. Then the squash. And the cheese.

Pop it in the oven for 12 minutes. Check to make sure the bottom is cooked. Add a few minutes if it’s not. For us, the perfect pizza usually comes out in 15 minutes.

Happy Fall!

Makes one 20 inch pizza (which, in our house, serves 2 adults and 2 littles).