Recipe of the Week: Zucchini-Crusted Pizza

The Moosewood Cookbook has provided me with some delightful new recipes. All of the recipes in the cookbook are vegetarian and also quite healthy. Last weekend I decided to break it out to make a dinner for a few friends one evening. The recipe I chose for this little get-together was the Zucchini-Crusted Pizza. The recipe stuck out to me because a) I like pizza and b) I loooooooove zucchini. Here is the recipe.

Zucchini-Crusted Pizza

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Cups Grated Zucchini - I put small chunks of zucchini in a food processor

2 Eggs, Beaten

1/4 Cup Flour + Flour for the pan

1/2 Cup Grated Mozzarella

1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan

Optional: Pinches of Basil, Marjoram, or Rosemary

Plus the toppings of your choice. I included:

1 Large Ripe Tomato, Sliced

Extra Mozzarella, Shredded

1/2 of each Green and Red Peppers, Sliced

Handful of Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Sliced

Grated Parmesan, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 and oil a pie pan and coat it with flour.

Mix together the zucchini, eggs, flour, mozzarella, parmesan, herbs and 1 tbsp olive oil in a bowl.

Spread the mixture onto the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Halfway through, brush with the another tbsp of olive oil.

Cool for 10 minutes, loosen with a spatula from the pan, so that it won't break later.

Top the crust with the tomatoes, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and cheeses. Bake until heated through and cheese is melted.

The zucchini crust wasn't intensely flavorful. It honestly was hard to distinguish from a doughy crust. But it was much healthier and the whole dish was divine.

The cool air goes to my head and my stomach!

Last weekend welcomed fall as the temperatures were in the 50's, with the sun shining and a crispness to the air. The noticeable change in seasons motivated me to make some autumn-friendly foods. An additional motivational factor was I had a whole lot of apples and needed to find some ways to eat them all.

I decided to make some recipes from the Moosewood Cookbook. For dinner I made the Stuffed Squash recipe (which called for apples in the stuffing), along with some grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. I have to say I was very disppointed with the squash. It wasn't horrible, but it did not meet my expectations for all of the work that went into it. (I always hold my breath when cutting thick squash, I inherited terrible cutting skills from my mother. Both of us often draw blood in these circumstances. No blood this time though.)




The highlight of the dinner ended up being the apple crisp I made for dessert! This was also from the Moosewood Cookbook. I made a smaller batch then called for because it turned out half of my apples were rotten inside (ewww!). But the ones that were good made a totally delicious dessert. It consisted mostly of an apple-cinnamin-sugar-lemon juice mixture beneath a topping of oats, flour, brown sugar, butter and spices. Delicious!

With my dinner and wonderful dessert I enjoyed a glass (or two) of a Cabernet Franc I got from a winery a few hours upstate. The apples, the wine, I was trying to keep it local!