Zucchini, Pecorino & Pine Nut Pizza
This pizza involves making a creamy lemony zucchini puree as your base. Topped with loads of pecorino cheese and pine nuts this is easily one of my fave toppings. Pecorino is a hard Italian sheeps milk cheese, you could sub for Parmesan if you wanted.
Ingredients
(makes enough puree for a couple of pizzas - I freeze extra for next time)
Pizza dough, recipe here
Zucchini Sauce
2 zucchini, cut in half lengthways
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
a pinch of chilli flakes
Juice of 1/2 lemon (use the other half in your GnT)
1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
To Top Pizza
2-3 Tbsp pine nuts
6 sage leaves
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
More pecorino cheese, shaved to serve
1 Tbsp flour + 1 Tbsp polenta
Prep It
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Slice zucchini in half lengthways and place cut side up in a baking dish. Thinly slice garlic and sprinkle over zucchini along with olive oil, basil leaves and chilli flakes. Season with salt and cover with foil.
Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until zucchini are very soft and mushy. Remove from oven and transfer to a blender (I used a nutri bullet) along with lemon juice and first measure of grated pecorino. Blend until very smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
Make It
Place pizza stone/baking tray in oven and preheat to 250°c or as hot as it will go.
Thinly slice raw zucchini into rounds and set aside.
Mix flour and polenta together on a clean bench (alternatively just use flour) and place proved dough ball in the middle. Use tips of fingers to to press the dough out in a clockwise motion, until you get a 1cm thick circle. Using the flat fingers push/stretch the dough out until its so thin that you can almost see through the dough. Transfer to a piece of baking paper to make it easier to move the pizza to the oven.
Spread 3 good tablespoons of zucchini puree onto pizza base and top with slices of raw zucchini and sage leaves. Sprinkle over pine nuts and season with salt and pepper.
Bake It
Transfer to baking stone/tray in oven, carefully slide paper away and bake for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through. Switch oven to high grill, remove pizza from oven and drizzle with a little olive oil. Return to oven and grill for 1-2 minutes, until golden and blistery. Watch while grilling to ensure it doesn’t burn.
Remove from oven and transfer to a chopping board. Sprinkle over shaved pecorino and cut into wedges. Drizzle with more olive oil and probably sprinkle over more salt.