While I’ll gladly cook with fire year-round, I adore feeling the warmth in the evenings as we slowly begin to welcome fall. Over the years, it’s become a time of much pizza making for me, and this squash pizza embodies a true fall delight.
Kabocha Squash Pizza
If you are unfamiliar with it, kabocha is a lovely Japanese variety of winter squash. It has green and orange skins, both of which are edible (which makes this squash great for recipes like this pizza).
Fun fact: squash actually grows throughout the summer and becomes a wonderful fall harvest bounty to use throughout the cooler months. Because of this, I use squash as a transitional vegetable to get me through the transition from summer to fall and often pair it with summer or fall produce.
Squash options
Can’t find kabocha? This pizza is also great with delicata or red kuri squash (neither variety requires peeling). You could also use wedges of peeled butternut squash or remove the squash altogether and use roasted potatoes. There are many ways to make this pizza!
Make it vegan
Swap in bechamel that uses your favorite non-dairy milk and plenty of garlic. Top with your favorite vegan mozzarella cheese, or hold the cheese and make it a salad pizza with some lightly dressed arugula.
Herbs
I love fresh herbs like dill as a topping for this squash pizza, but you could also kick it up a notch with a drizzle of paprika oil (I prefer a rosemary-garlic-paprika oil).
Pizza Dough
While I have instructions on how I’ve made pizza dough, I’ve been using the recipe from Alexandra Stafford’s Pizza Night as of late. The dough is beautiful and works quite well with the pizza oven. Plus, if you’re into pizza as much as I am, the book has plenty more inspiration!
Pizza
- Pizza dough (enough for 1, 12” pie)
- Flour for dusting
- 3 oz 90g torn or shredded mozzarella cheese
- Dill for finishing
- Olive oil for finishing
Garlic Cream
- 1/4 cup 65g heavy cream
- 1 6g garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Kabocha
- 4 ounces 114g kabocha squash
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- Salt
-
Preheat an oven or grill (whichever you prefer for cooking pizza) and let the pizza dough rest, covered, at room temperature while preheating and prepping.
-
To make the garlic cream: Place the cream in a small skillet over medium heat and grate the garlic on a microplane into the cream. Add a small pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until the cream slightly thickens and reduces to about 3 tablespoons of cream, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
-
To cook the squash: Cut the squash into ¼”-thick slices. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high to high heat, using a vent fan if you have one. Add the squash slices in a single layer. Sear until mostly brown on one side, flip, and repeat. Watch the squash closely—it will cook quickly over the high heat. Once both sides have a good sear, remove from the heat, cover, and let sit until squash is tender.
-
To make the pizza: Stretch the dough into a 12” circle. Place on a floured pizza peel and spread the garlic cream over the dough. Top with the cooked squash, then sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown and cooked through. (The cook time will depend on your chosen pizza-making method.)
-
To finish the pizza: Once the pizza is cooked, sprinkle it with enough dill to make you happy and finish with a drizzle of olive oil before serving.
