the return of pizza | roasted delicata squash & red onion

Hooray for pizza! It's been such a long while since we've seen some pizza around these parts, huh? Mind you, we are always, always making pizza -- having some nuggets of dough in the freezer is my own type of financial/emotional security -- but it hasn't made its way onto these pages since... oh? Some other season, that's for sure.

Let's kick things off again with a really tasty, warming vegetarian version. This one takes a very tiny bit of advance planning. Hey, we have to remember to take dough out to thaw, so forethought isn't totally unheard of.

You just need to give yourself an extra 30 minutes or so to prepare these beauties:

roasted delicata squash, with garlic and sage

roasted red onion halves with thyme

Once you've gotten the two main stars prepped (which you can totally do well in advance), this pizza comes together in a snap.







Just remember to add your sage garnish before you start eating. Unlike me.

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Roasted Delicata Squash & Red Onion Pizza

Makes one pizza for sharing. Or not.

Advance prep: Oven to 400˚F. Cut one delicata squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Oil all over with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Place two cloves (skin-on) of garlic and two sage leaves under each half of squash and place (face-down) on a lined roasting pan. Cut two red onions in half (leave skins on), oil 'em up and season with S&P. Place face-up on pan and sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves. Roast for ~30 minutes, flipping onions over a couple of times. Squash will be done with it's soft all over and the skin is starting to brown (it's fully edible). Onions should look roasty and caramelized, obviously!

Make 6-10 half-inch slices of the roasted squash (depending on the size of yours). You'll have leftovers for another use. Remove the outer onion skins and slice each half once or more (so they're bite-size). The garlic should be soft; squeeze it in a small bowl and stir with ~1 T olive oil to make a paste. Reserve sage leaves for garnish.

Then, assemble pizza:

basic pizza recipe + spread with roasted garlic paste + top with a big handful of mozzarella cheese + squash pieces (lightly mash in place with a fork so they look interesting and will brown more) + onion pieces +  red chili flakes. Lightly olive-oil the crust area and sprinkle with salt. 

:::Bake according to basic pizza recipe:::

Garnish with freshly grated parmesan, chopped parsley and reserved sage leaves. Plus a lemon wedge. A drizzle of olive oil can't hurt either!

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