Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza with homemade Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Crust

I really loved this pizza. Why “loved” in the past tense? I’ll explain before too long.

Butternut squash. I had never used it before. Didn’t even know what it tasted like. What a beautiful vegetable. Upon cutting the squash in half to expose its gorgeous fall, orange color and a healthy mound of seeds, the flesh looks a lot like a cantaloupe or maybe even a sweet potato. Doesn’t smell or taste like a cantaloupe OR sweet potato, however.   At Costco they sell it already cut up and prepared for your instant use in a plastic container – but really? It’s not a problem to purchase a fresh one from the market and prepare it yourself.

You may find this next image odd. A photograph of the squash’s pretty fleshy color and it’s seeds and stem. Isn’t this part of the love of kitchen play, discovery? I should’ve kept the seeds and baked ’em up with some spices. Wasteful on my part…I’ll try it with the backup squash sitting in the refrigerator when I put it to tasty use.

Butternut Squash – the beauty of its color, seeds and stem. Kitchen play and discovery.

Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza with homemade Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Crust

This roasted fall vegetable pizza with ricotta and fresh mozzarella was enticing due to the vegetable mix, use of ricotta and mozzarella and its display of beautiful colors. Besides how it tastes and how incredibly filling it is, you just have to feel good that you’ve included several fresh vegetables, herbs and good, wholesome ingredients in a meal…even in the form of pizza. Pizza doesn’t have to be laden with greasy meats and cheeses (save that for a fast-food pizza night…or maybe not!).

And the pizza crust?   One of my great pet peeves are recipes that call for something general without offering an alternative.   The original recipe called for a pound of “store-bought” pizza dough.   I’m not knocking “store-bought” but an alternative to “store-bought” would be nice.    If you’re pressed for time, than store-bought may be the way to go.  Otherwise, plan ahead for homemade dough that you’ve set aside in advance and/or try the Wolfgang Puck’s pizza crust that I’m including here.   It’s a keeper of a recipe and one that I’ll be using as my base from now in lieu of the recipe I’ve used for years prior.    The dough yields a fantastic texture and is very easy to work with.

A whole head of garlic was used and using baby carrots without halving them were good modifications in the final outcome.    I’m sharing three recipes here:

• Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza with Ricotta and Mozzarella
• Roasted Fall Vegetables (you’ll need half this recipe for the pizza; if you make the full recipe, the vegetables are fantastic warmed up for dinner the next evening with fish, meat or chicken).
• Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Dough – This dough is so easy to work with and a true keeper.   Good texture.  You’re using honey in this recipe instead of granulated sugar.

A word about safety in the kitchen and overconfidence…
Back to my opening sentence about using the past tense of “love” with regards to this pizza:

First off, I’m looking forward to making this pizza again. In fact, I’m cravin’ it’s flavors right now (a food photographer and food writer’s hazard when writing about the tasty things you make with TLC, photographed, served and write about). I’ve been baking and using an oven on my own since I was eight (parent supervision, of course!). I’m no stranger to my ovens, in fact – they get more lovin’ from me than my stove-top does. This last Sunday, I wasn’t giving my full attention to the task at hand. Rushing and too many thoughts in my head about things, I carelessly burnt my hand while pulling the roasted vegetables out of the oven. Blistering and all…for sure it will be a scarring reminder. It was pure carelessness on my part.

Fast-forward to the next evening when I was looking forward and anxiously awaiting the pizza on the second night as leftovers and to test out rewarming time. This pizza is heavy. Look at all the ingredients. I totally miscalculated its weight and being overconfident and not remembering safety first, I pulled the pan out of the oven with one heat protected hand. Disaster! I dropped the 400 degree pan of melted cheeses and roasted vegetables – top first and head down on the floor.   SPLAT!  I was wearing shorts and this could’ve been a much more severe and serious story other than the cleanup, disappointment and utter disbelief at my idiocy.   The hot pan could have slipped and fell all over me or splattered and thus burning myself or anyone or anything else nearby, for that matter. Hence the word “loved” because we didn’t get to finish the other half as it met its fate on my kitchen floor.

Safety first, always!

Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza with Ricotta and Mozzarella

• A very filling pizza!
• On the second night of rewarming this pizza, added 3-quartered Roma tomatoes to the pizza. Rewarmed at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.
• Use HALF of the Roasted Fall Vegetables recipe (recipe follows next) for the pizza.

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Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza with Ricotta and Mozzarella

source modified from MarthaStewart.com

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Olive oil
Flour for dusting

1 pound store-bought pizza dough (OR see recipe that follows: Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Crust Dough )

8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
6 cups Roasted Fall Vegetables (will be 1/2 of the recipe that follows)
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Brush a large baking sheet with some olive oil or line with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pizza dough into an oval 12×16 inches – or as large as your baking sheet will hold. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Sprinkle dough with half the mozzarella. Evenly distribute vegetables on the surface of the dough (move vegetables around so there is an even assortment of the different vegetables). Drop dollops of ricotta on top of the vegetables and use the remaining mozzarella. Sprinkle with rosemary. Very lightly drizzle some olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza – Prep

Bake until dough is golden and cheese and bubbly and slightly starting to caramelize. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Store leftovers tightly covered in refrigerator.

Roasted Fall Vegetables

• Used a full head of garlic.
• Substituted carrots with baby carrots; no need to halve or cut to prep.
• These are fantastic rewarmed and served on the side with a salmon, chicken or meat.
• Add chunks of beef and roast with the vegetables for a fantastic twist and marriage of flavors.
• If you are using this recipe with the Roasted Fall Vegetables Pizza, use HALF of this recipe for the pizzas.  Plan accordingly by either making half or plan that you will have half of the roasted vegetables as leftovers.

Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza Crust Dough

• Used the full recipe of dough for the Roasted Fall Vegetable Pizza with Ricotta and Fresh Mozzarella.
• A very easy dough to handle that requires very little flour or additional oil to work with.
• Note: I don’t personally own the “Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza, Pasta & More!” cookbook as it’s already out of print. This recipe originates from that book and was featured on MarthaStewart.com. There are some generous used book listings of this title on Amazon.com. This may be the next book I add to the cookbook library. I was so impressed by this pizza dough!