Friday, December 23, 2011

Recipe for Squash, Apple and Bacon Pizza


Yield: 3 servings (depends on the size of your pizza crust)
Time: 45 minutes


Ingredients:

  • Your favorite pizza dough (I used the whole wheat one from Hertzberg and Francois' Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day)
  • 2 cups cubed butternut squash
  • 1 cup cubed Granny Smith apple
  • 1 cup thinly sliced onions
  • 3 TBSP plus 1 tsp olive oil, divided
  • 3/4 tsp dried sage
  • 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 TBSP pure maple syrup
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 TBSP butter
  • 6 slices bacon
  • 1/3 cup low fat sour cream

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Mix squash and apple with 2 TBSP olive oil, sage, nutmeg, syrup and generous sprinkle of salt and pepper.
  • Spread squash/apple mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.
  • While veggies are roasting melt butter in 1 TBSP olive oil over medium low heat and cook onions until soft and lightly caramelized.
  • Also, cook, drain and chop bacon.
  • Adjust oven for pizza crust (for me, 500 degrees).
  • Add 1/2 of squash mixture, 1/2 of onions, and the sour cream to food processor and puree until smooth.
  • Stir in 1/2 of bacon.
  • Prepare pizza dough (spread/roll on a cornmeal dusted parchment on a pizza peel).
  • Spread about 1/2 of puree over dough (or more if making a large pizza; save any leftovers!).
  • Top with enough of the reserved squash/apple mixture to sparsely cover (you don't want to "over top" it).
  • Sprinkle with remaining bacon and onions (or reserve onions and drop on for the last few minutes of cooking time).
  • Brush rim of crust with 1 tsp of olive oil.
  • Bake for 5 minutes on the parchment on a pizza stone then carefully remove parchment with the help of a large spatula and continue cooking for a total of 12-15 minutes.