Zucchini & Zucchini Flower Pizza
Although we do not have a huge vegetable garden here in Umbria, the month of July always brings a surplus of zucchini and I find myself going through my recipe files daily trying to come up with new ideas to use up all of our zucchini bounty. Between the round zucchini I stuff, the regular long zucchini that I fry, grill, stuff, or saute, I find we are picking and eating zucchini almost daily.
Then there are also the zucchini flowers…………. Although I could eat fried zucchini flowers daily, I realize that would not be great for my health or my waistline! One day when we decided to fire up the pizza oven, I picked a couple of baby zucchini from the garden along with a handful of gorgeous bright zucchini flowers for my pizza.
I skipped the tomato sauce, brushing the crust simply with olive oil before adding my toppings and ended up with a delicious, light tasting pizza. Because zucchini are not the most exciting tasting vegetable, I added a little sauteed pancetta, and used some Taleggio cheese along with the mozzarella.
Taleggio is one of my favorite Italian cheeses and has a great flavor, and is creamy smooth. All the pizza needed was some cracked black pepper and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and I had a great summer pizza I’d definitely make again!
Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele
Zucchini & Zucchini Flower Pizza
Celebrating zucchini by using both the flowers and sliced zucchini on this light summer pizza.
Ingredients
- 4 Balls Pizza Dough (8 Ounces Each)
- 1 1/2 Cups Diced Pancetta
- 3 Garlic Cloves, Peeled & Minced
- 4 Small Zucchini, Washed, Trimmed, & Thinly Sliced
- 16 to 20 Zucchini Flowers (Depending On Size), Stemmed, & Stamens Removed
- 2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 4 Ounces Taleggio Cheese
- Cracked Black Pepper
- Coarsely Ground Sea Salt
- Red Pepper Flakes (Optional)
- 3/4 Cup Pine Nuts
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to highest temperature.
- In a frying pan, saute the diced pancetta until lightly browned.
- Add the garlic, mix well, and cook another minute or two.
- Roll out one ball of dough to about 12 to 14 inch diameter circle and place on a pizza pell or baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
- Lightly brush the top of the dough with olive oil, and scatter 1/4 of the shredded mozzarella, then 1 ounce of the Taleggio across the top.
- Evenly place the sliced zucchini, pancetta/garlic, and zucchini flowers on top of the cheese.
- Sprinkle the top with black pepper, salt, pine nuts, and red pepper flakes if using.
- Bake until the cheese is bubbly and the crust lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Continue to make the remaining four pizzas in the same fashion.
