Butternut squash pizza

5 from 3 votes

A delicious sweet-savory combination of fall flavors in a pizza - so good!

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 736kcal

Author: Caroline

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(Note you can also use ready-made pizza dough - you need around 1lb/450g for one recipe quantity). To make the pizza dough, put the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix together. Add the warm water and oil and mix together into a dough. It will be slightly sticky and a bit of a shaggy mixture. Bring the mixture together and tip the dough out onto a floured surface.
Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, stretching the dough away from you with the back of your hand, folding the stretched part over on top of the rest of the dough, turning 90 degrees then repeating, until the dough is smooth. Add a little more flour as you go, if needed but take are not to add too much as you want to keep it soft. Clean out the mixing bowl, lightly oil it then form the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Cover with cling film/plastic wrap and leave it to rest somewhere warm for about an hour, possibly more, until it doubles in size.

As the dough is rising, prepare the sauce. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Cut the peeled and deseeded squash into chunks and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle over a little salt, pepper and olive oil and toss so all the chunks are evenly coated. Spread out in a single layer.
Roast the squash until tender (approximately 25-35 minutes) then leave to cool slightly. Transfer the squash to a blender or food processor and add the parmesan, a little nutmeg and garlic powder and two or three tablespoons of water/stock/cream. Blend until smooth. If it's stiff, add a little more liquid but remember you only want it spreadable, not pourable - it should be fairly thick.

When ready to make the pizza, preheat oven to 425F/220C and line two baking sheets or prepare pizza stones.
Knock back the pizza dough (prod with your fingers after turning it out of the bowl) and divide into 2 (or more/less if increasing/decreasing recipe). Keep the piece(s) you are not working with to one side, covered, while you work on the one pizza. Quarter the pear and remove the core then cut into relatively thin slices. Slice the mozzarella and cut larger slices. Finely chop the sage.
Roll or stretch the pizza dough into a circle or rectangle, as you prefer, and as suits your baking sheet/tray, and place on the lined baking sheet - I prefer a very thin pizza base for this but you can make a little thicker if you prefer.
Spread half the squash sauce (or proportional amount, if increasing/decreasing recipe) over the pizza dough so it is fairly even and leaves a small rim around the edge without the sauce. Spread the pear slices evenly over the top then sprinkle over the bacon jam and add the slices of mozzarella in between, or with some jam on top, spacing evenly over the pizza. Top with grated parmesan and the sage. Repeat with other pizza base and toppings.
Bake the pizza for approximately 15-20 minutes until the dough is browning and the cheese is just starting to brown as well.

If you like, you can use part bread flour and/or part wholewheat flour in the pizza dough - I'd suggest up to ½ bread flour and up to ¼ wholewheat.

I recommend using my apple bacon jam for this (which is great for much more, too!) though you can also use store bought bacon jam.

I use Bosc pear here as it keeps a good firm texture, but Bartlett would also work well. Use one that is only just ripe or slightly underripe.

If you don't have bacon jam, you can pre-cook and slice bacon instead (around 8oz/225g for one recipe quantity) or use some prosciutto.

Nutritional information assumes using my apple bacon jam but is, as always, an estimate.

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