Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza


Almost a month ago we made something so simple and delicious I asked Joe to send me the pics immediately because I must blog about this NOW. He sent me the photos, and yesterday (yes, 3 weeks later) as I was organizing my computer I came across them. So I apologize to anyone reading this and cursing my name because your zucchini have now gone bad and you have eaten no delectable zucchini pizza. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by our new house - there should be another pizza in the oven around 7 tonight.

The first pizza disappeared the day it was made. We had it for lunch, and by around 5pm we looked at each other with the same thought, 'will (s)he think it's strange if I have another piece now?' and raced each other to the fridge.

Mmmm, I'm getting hungry (at 3pm, after a late lunch) now, thinking about the goat cheese plus thinly sliced squash, with tangy lemon over it all.


I whipped up some homemade pizza dough, from a recipe on the same site (yep, it's Smitten Kitchen). It was surprisingly easy. I froze a second batch, which I'm going to try out tonight. Maybe in a month or so I'll post my results.



We enjoyed our pizza out on the patio, one of our last meals at the old place, and paired it with Sessions beer in cute little bottles. Add a garden salad and you've got yourself a meal. We didn't have garden salad, but we did eat some yummy homemade beet chips - oh yeah, and sweet potato fries with Maytag bleu dipping sauce - oh, my, that's another post right there.


Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza

from SK


1 batch Simplest Pizza Dough or a store-bought pizza dough that will yield one small (approx. 11 to 12 inches across), thin pizza
1 lemon
4 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
Few leaves of fresh basil, cut into thin slivers
1 yellow summer squash, sliced as thinly as you can with a knife or mandoline
1/2 medium green zucchini, sliced the same as above
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Place a pizza stone* in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. Roll your pizza dough into a thin 12-inch circle on parchment paper that has been dusted lightly with cornmeal.

In a small bowl, stir together the goat cheese with the juice of half your lemon. Season it with salt and freshly ground pepper, and spread it over your pizza dough. Scatter fresh basil slivers over the cheese.

Arrange your zucchini & squash coins in concentric circles over the goat cheese spread, overlapping them slightly. You can alternate their colors, if you’re feeling fancy. Squeeze the juice of the second half of your lemon on top of you zucchini, then drizzle with olive oil and finish with more salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake on preheated stone for 10 to 15 minutes (your baking time will vary, so please watch carefully), or until the edges of your pizza are golden brown and the zucchini looks roasted and a little curled up at the edges.


*Pizza stone is optional - you can bake it on a pizza pan too - but I have to tell you about something I ran across while blog jumping. This tip apparently comes from Alton Brown on Good Eats - pick up some unglazed ceramic tiles (aka quarry tiles) from the hardware store to create an inexpensive pizza stone. We found 6x6 tiles for about 50 cents each and made an 18" pizza stone for $4.50 (ok, $5, since we wanted 1 extra tile for when I inevitably break one). Worked like a charm. Thanks again, Internet!

Comments

  1. This looks so good!
    Maybe I could pull it off...not sure, but worth a try.
    I did make the Mexican Casserole a couple of months ago. Turned out so well, I made it a second time for a new mommy meal. And THEY liked it so much they asked for the recipe (credit given)!

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