Summer Squash White Pizza
I absolutely love pizza (who doesn’t?!), but I especially love white pizza. It is the most elite of all the pizzas out there and you can’t convince me otherwise! While I do love a good red sauce slice, having no tomato sauce to rely on means all other components need to be flavor packed. The result is a uniquely delicious slice!
Pizza also happens to be one of my favorite vehicles for eating vegetables, and one of the most delicious combinations during summertime is a summer squash pizza. It’s a great way to sneak in your veggies, and a fun way to expand beyond the usual pizza vegetable toppings, like onions, peppers, or mushrooms. My recipe combines a homemade thin crust that rises slowly so that it’s packed with flavor, a squash-infused double cream, tons of melty fontina cheese, and thin ribbons of green zucchini and yellow squash into pizza perfection. This pie bakes on a sheet tray, so it’s BIG and perfect for entertaining. Take advantage of all the summer squash while it’s in season and get this pie in your oven ASAP!
1. Preheat the Pan!
An easy but SUPER important step in this recipe is to preheat your sheet pan before you put your crust on it. The double cream is extremely rich, so getting a nice crust to form is a must in order to balance out all the decadent toppings!
2. Squash Ribbons?
It’s essential to use extremely thin slices of squash on this pizza so that they cook properly during the time in the oven, and so that they don’t release too much moisture down onto the crust and make it soggy. I like to use a mandolin, or even a sharp vegetable peeler to get nice, thin ribbons.
3. Infused Double Cream
I hate when a recipe doesn’t use all of an ingredient, and so one of the best things about this pizza is that all of the leftover squash that can’t be sliced into ribbons gets used in the double cream that serves as the pizza sauce! It not only eliminates food waste, but it also infuses the sauce with incredible, yet subtle, squash flavor.
Squash Pizza
Ingredients
For the Pizza Dough
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 cups (280 grams) all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for oiling
For the Topping
- 1 yellow squash, sliced into 8 (¼-inch) ribbons, scraps and core reserved
- 1 zucchini, sliced into 8 (¼-inch) ribbons, scraps and core reserved
- 3 cups shredded fontina (12 ounces)
For the Zucchini Cream Sauce (¼ cup cream sauce left)
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- Reserved squash scraps and core
- 12 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add ¾ cup lukewarm water and sprinkle yeast over top. Lightly whisk to combine, then cover with a tea towel. Leave for 5 minutes to bloom, then remove towel. The liquid should smell yeasty and look a bit foamy.
- Fit the mixer with the dough hook attachment, then add flour and salt and mix on medium speed, until a shaggy dough forms. Then increase speed and knead for 5 minutes, or until a smooth, elastic ball of dough forms. Add olive oil to sides of the bowl and turn ball of dough in oil to coat completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight. Alternatively, keep at room temperature and allow to rise for 1 hour. The flavor and texture of the dough will be less developed, but will still work.
- The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator, then make the cream sauce.
- To a medium sauce pot over high heat, add cream, reserved zucchini pieces, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, keeping a steady boil to the mixture. Stir often, ensuring nothing burns on the bottom of the pot. Boil for 35-40 minutes, or until cream has reduced by half and zucchini and garlic are very soft. Transfer to a high powered blender and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Set aside until ready to assemble.
- Preheat the oven to 500°F. Add enough oil to barely cover the bottom of a baking sheet and set aside.
- Next, roll out pizza dough. Lightly punch down the dough and then place between two sheets of parchment. Roll dough out to 12 x 14 inches, then carefully peel back the top parchment sheet and add parchment free dough side to oiled baking sheet. Remove second piece of parchment from dough and top with zucchini cream sauce. Using the back of a spoon or an offset spatula, spread cream to the edges, leaving a 1 inch border. Sprinkle fontina cheese evenly over the cream and then layer zucchini ribbons in a diagonal pattern.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the crust and cheese is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing. Cut into 9 pieces and serve immediately.
