Butternut and Caramelized Onion Pizza
I’ll try to keep this post short because I’m about to go for a walk. We are enjoying (Canadian) Thanksgiving today with my wife’s family. It’s a lovely fall day here in the Ottawa Valley on the Eastern side of Ontario. My Young Assistant is making a puzzle with his uncle, Madame is reading, several members of the family are working on gluten-free pie crusts (we have 4 GF people in the family), I have a couple loaves of bread rising, our local turkey is in the oven, and it’s a beautiful day! We got silly after church and took a bunch of family photos…. And although the following recipe is not Thanksgiving food, it definitely is a great Fall pizza (and check out our other local pizza ideas from around the year)!
On Wednesday I had leftover pizza dough in the fridge from my Young Assistant’s birthday party a few days before. It was just the boys and I for dinner because Madame was in Toronto for work. I pulled the dough out and assessed what ingredients were available for toppings. Leftover whipped butternut squash in the fridge from the night before. Onions. Walnuts. Greens growing in the garden. An emergency stash of mozzarella in the freezer and a small amount of goat cheese. I did a quick search for foods that can accompany butternut and decided some caramelized onions and wilted greens would do nicely. Oh and I did a second pizza that was much simpler that the boys preferred, it just had sauce and cheese…. So here’s the butternut pizza that emerged:
Butternut and Caramelized Onion Pizza Topped with Wilted Greens
Ingredients:
- whipped butternut* (½ cup or more)
- ½ cup onion (or more), chopped and fried with a bit of olive oil until nicely caramelized (5-10 minutes)
- ½ cup walnuts
- 5-10 leaves of chard/spinach/other green, chopped coarsely
- mozzarella (grated or sliced thinly)
- soft goat cheese (crumbled)
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- pizza dough (I recommend this one )
Stretch your pizza dough and top with the whipped butternut. Add the cheeses, caramelized onions, and walnuts. Cook at 500 for 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile chop the greens and toss them in a small amount olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Open the oven and quickly add the greens on top of the pizza and cook 2-3 more minutes, until they are wilted. Enjoy!
October 13, 2013 @ 7:01 pm
Awesome photos Jon!! You have a beautiful family… yay for times when everyone gets a bit silly (particularly if there are leaves involved!). It’s amazing how characteristic the russet, gold and brown leaves are to the Northern Hemisphere fall/autumn. Over here in Australia, most of the native plants are evergreen so we don’t get as much of the leaf drop or those gorgeous fall colours to admire. Hm. I guess on the plus side, there’s not as much to sweep!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you guys. Thanks for sharing these moments (and that awesome pizza, yum!) with us.
October 13, 2013 @ 10:01 pm
Thanks, Laura. We’ve been happy to have moved back to the North of North America to finally get to experience a true fall again, after the pseudo fall of Atlanta. But you’re right, in general there’s lots of sweeping and raking to be done this time of year!
October 13, 2013 @ 10:26 pm
This pizza sounds really good and simple and healthy! I like that you used the whipped butternut squash instead of a sauce. The pictures of you and your family are great. What wonderful memories you are making for your boys! Happy Thanksgiving!
October 13, 2013 @ 10:30 pm
Thanks, Vickie! I was happy to be able to put a leftover to use as a new creation. I had read about doing that somewhere and realized it’s much better than just eating leftovers!