Monday, August 24, 2009

White Pizza with Dual Color Zucchini

I came across this recipe a bit ago and thought to myself: When was the last time I had white pizza? Was it at Sal's as a 7 year old? Really?
Well, it's quite possible.
It's definitely been longer than since I last had a donut.

Since I saw that, I have been planning and plotting. The key to this recipe is the very thinly sliced zucchini artfully layered across the surface. That way there's no pre-cooking, and no overly raw crunchy zucchini on top of your otherwise perfect pizza.
Now, I thought I would be clever because I have a food processor with mandolin disc blades to do the hard work for me. A food processor that has pretty much been following me where ever I moved since 2001. Well, you see, if you don't have this one plastic stem-like attachment, you pretty much just have a shiny disc blade that no matter how hard you try to cram it into your Cuisinart, just won't stay. You may lose a finger trying to do that too, if you're not careful. Those suckers are sharp.
If you find yourself in the same situation, I advise you to make peace with your knife skills now.

Ready?

White Pizza with Dual Color Zucchini

1 Recipe of Pizza Dough (I picked up a ready made one from Trader Joe's- super simple)
Cornmeal for dusting
2 medium zucchini (one gold, one green)
Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Pseudo-Ricotta
1 16 oz Tub of Tofu
1 tsp salt
A few grinds of cracked black pepper
3 Tablespoons of toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup + 1 heaping tablespoon of Tofutti Cream Cheese
2 - 3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil


Preheat your oven to 450 °F
If you have a pizza stone, you're in luck! If not, you can use a silpat lined cookie sheet.
Lightly dust the silpat with some cornmeal.
Stretch out you dough to the desired shape and let it relax a bit while you chop the veg.
As above, if you're lucky enough to have some sort of mandolin, employ it now- aim for 1/4 inch slices. Elsewise, get in some quality time with your chef's knife.

For the Tofu Ricotta:
This is something I came up with over Christmas a few years back. It's not exactly ricotta, as my Italian mother will inform me of each time, but the tangy-ness from the tofutti cream cheese, and the body from the pine nuts makes it a damn fine substitute, if I don't say so myself.
Drain the tofu (like we did here) and crumble into a food processor (a blender could also work here)
Add all the ingredients except the oil, and pulse to combine.
Drizzle in the oil while blending, and process until you've got a smooth texture.
Spread a layer of the tofu ricotta over the pizza dough- don't lay it on too thick, or your dough will remain somewhat gooey.
Layer on your zucchini slices. You can be fancy, or you can be utilitarian, knock yourself out.



Drizzle the top lightly with olive oil, a bit the juice from the half lemon, and a few grinds of cracked black pepper.


It might be a breadtangle of pizza...
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, rotating the pizza after 10 minutes.


I'm now inspired to get the missing piece for my Cuisinart, just so I can do this more often. Either that, or my knife skills will become legendary. Legendary.

2 comments:

test it comm said...

Nice looking zucchini pizza!

Mihl said...

Wow, that is just beautiful!