pizza of the week: sunchoke, squash & bacon

A delicious, rich pizza for a rainy winter night. In our weekly organic veggie delivery, we received the cutest, tiniest butternut squash and some gorgeously ugly sunchokes, one of my favorite tubers. I baked half of the squash for Jacky's morning squash mash. Moving on to the adult fare, and with pizza on the mind, I roasted the rest of the squash in slices along side whole sunchokes. The very handy Flavor Bible recommended bacon as a good match... and who am I to argue? This was a delicious riff on the potato pizza concept.

==========================================

Sunchoke, Squash & Bacon Pizza

Do ahead: In a 400˚ oven, roast a dozen or so thin slices of butternut squash (lightly oil and salt and pepper; no need to peel), as well as 3 small sunchoke tubers (scrubbed clean and left whole). Roast until the squash slices are lightly browned and the sunchokes are tender. Chop up one slice of bacon and fry until cooked. Drain on paper towels.

To make pizza, start with basic pizza recipe. Chop one clove garlic and steep it in extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes. Roll out your dough and brush with garlic oil. Reserve garlic. Sprinkle oiled dough with a handful each of grated mozzarella and gruyere cheeses. Place roasted squash slices on top of cheese. Slice roasted sunchokes (no need to peel) and nestle slices around squash. Sprinkle over a few thin slices of red onion, the reserved bacon and garlic, and some rosemary needles. Lightly salt the crust and cook according to basic recipe. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley and a squirt of lemon.

==========================================