Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Zucchini Crust Pizza: Real Food

My wife discovered this recipe in search of something to do with our zucchini and wow, what a find.  Who would've thought that zucchini could be grated and baked into a flatbread.  We stay pretty faithful to the crust recipe (originally a Moosewood recipe, but find another version at this great blog here), and our own gluten-free sympathies have moved us toward to finely-ground polenta.  And let me just say, with cheese mixed into the zucchini, this is amazing - and smells really good as it bakes.  I would say, based on the criteria of the challenge, this satisfies the soul (as well as the waist-line) and I think it's got a complex flavor while helping you get a couple servings of your veggies at the same time.  It's been a good year for zucchini (from the farm share - I got one zucchini and then little pests attacked my plant) and tomatoes, so this is perfect. 



You can top it anyway you like.  We used a homemade tomato sauce made from cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, fresh garlic, basil, oregano and thyme.  We had so many fresh cherry tomatoes that we ended up using it again for eggplant parmesan a couple days later. 


Finally, we topped it with some grated mozarella and paremsan and there you have it.  Here's the recipe:

2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
1/4 cup finely ground corn meal (plus some more for the pan)
1/2 cup grated mozarella
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1-2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter and flour a cookie sheet.  Mix together all the ingredients and spread out into pan.  Bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes.  Brush with olive oil at about 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for about ten minutes.  Work on loosening the crust from the pan with a large spatula.  Top as desired and place back into the oven until cheese has browned. 

Enjoy!

T4ToriginalGirlichef

10 comments:

  1. Nice! I love the sound of this. I just used up the last of what zucchini I had...if you can believe that. But I'm reserving my next few for this! Yum. Thanks for sharing it w/ t4t this week =)

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  2. This sounds amazing, but I can't eat corn. Would this work with wheat flour instead of corn flour, or would it mess up the chemistry of the dough?

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  3. You could easily use flour. We've used spelt in the past but I'm sure whole wheat would work well - the original Moosewood recipe uses regular flour. Thanks both for the comments!

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  4. This looks delicious! I'm hungry now.

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  5. What a great use of zucchini - I know I would love this - I am going to try this next time we have pizza on the menu! Thanks for linking to Two for Tues!

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  6. I love zucchini... I make a really nice Zucchini Pan Bread.. your recipe reminded me of it! BTW I have a recipe swap on my blog every Thursday - http://prairiestory.blogspot.com/

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  7. Thank you for linking this recipe to Two for Tuesday. I tried a similar recipe a few weeks ago and ended up sogged out, so I'm going to have to give it another go.

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  8. Soggy crust can be a problem. We had that issue early on. If you make it a few times it's easier to get the hang of it, mostly it just requires that you bake it a little longer before topping it. Also, it depends on the toppings. Heavier tomato sauces will release their liquids into the sauce and make it soggy. Reducing the sauce helps, or just going easy on it in general. Thanks all for the comments!

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  9. Mmm, sounds like an eggplant parm, but with zucchini instead. This looks great.

    And yes, gotta love Moosewood!

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  10. Wow, that sounds good! gotta try it :)

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