Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza

Sometimes my curiosity leads me to click link after link after link.  It happens on Wikipedia pages all the time.  I'm reading an article I originally searched for, but get distracted by a link to another page...which inevitably spirals out of control and I've lost an hour and my original train of thought before I know it.  This is especially common when I'm on Deb Perelman's fantastic food blog, Smitten Kitchen.  Between the end of her writing and before the recipe, she has links to her recipes from years past.  It never fails that I click on at least one of those links...and you know where that goes.

Thankfully, Deb's recipes have never yielded a flop or a less-than-edible creation.  I've come to trust her implicitly and discovered quite a few flavors and dishes from her.  I would never have taken such a simple approach to pizza toppings - goat cheese, lemon, summer squash.  Straying from tomato sauce on a pizza is nearly anathema to me, as is the lack of a gooey melted cheese and toppings that pack a wallop of their own flavor.  But these three ingredients, plus salt and pepper, come together for a pizza unlike any I'd met before. Creamy and tangy and harmonious. Oh, and incredibly simple, especially if you're using store-bought dough or dough you'd made before and stored in the freezer.

Deb's cookbook debuts this week. While waiting for my pre-ordered copy (because I am quite a bit of a foodie nerd), I'll be baking her apple and cheddar scones, which won me over to the apple + cheese camp I'd assiduously avoided for my lifetime.  They're the perfect fall treat, especially for the first day after baking. If you aren't a fan of Smitten Kitchen yet, check her out!

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza
Dough from Pizza: Award-Winning Pies for the Home Kitchen by Pete Evans
Toppings from Smitten Kitchen (get the original recipe here) 

For the Dough :
(makes 26 oz., roughly enough for four 12-inch pizzas)
Ingredients for the Dough:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
3 cups plus 1 tbsp. flour (bread flour or all-purpose flour)
1 1/4 tsp. salt
Additional all-purpose flour for dusting

Preparation for the Dough:
In a small bowl, mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar together until combined, then leave in a warm place for 5 minutes, or until frothy. Stir in the olive oil.

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Pour the yeast mixture over the flour mixture and use your hands to bring them together to form a dough.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and use the heels of your hands to work the dough for 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.  Place the dough inside a lightly oiled bowl, then drape it with a dish towel and leave in a warm place to proof for 45-60 minutes, until the dough is doubled in size.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and put your risen dough on it.  Use your fists to give one good punch the dough.  Stress relieving, right?  If portioning the dough into smaller pieces, do so now.  Working with one portion at a time, use the palms of your hands to cup the dough at its base.  Roll it on the work surface in a circular motion to form a perfect ball.  Repeat with any remaining portions of dough.  Set on a lightly greased baking tray and leave in a warm place to proof for 15 minutes.

At this point, you can either freeze some dough (stored safely inside a freezer plastic bag) or continue on towards immediate pizza satisfaction.

But before we continue on with the dough, we should talk about the oven. If you're using a pizza stone, put it into the oven before turning it on to 450 - 500 degrees Farenheit. If you're not using a pizza stone, place a metal sheet pan in the oven before turning it on to 450 degrees Farenheit. 

This is also the perfect time to prepare the toppings...

Ingredients for Toppings:

1 lemon

4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature

A few leaves of fresh basil

1/2 medium zucchini, sliced as thinly as you can get

1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced as thinly as you can get

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Preparation for Toppings:

In a small dough, stir together the goat cheese with the juice of half your lemon.  Add salt, pepper, and, if you're feeling it, some lemon zest.  Set aside.

Have your squash slices ready for topping.

Back to the dough. Roll or toss it out into roughly a 12-inch circle. If you're adventuring into tossing pizza dough for the first time, here are my two most important pieces of advice: toss over a counter (or else your dough will meet the floor) and catch the dough on your knuckles (that means curl your fingers into your palms, so your knuckles are the top surface of your hand).  Dust the surface of your pizza peel (or another sheet pan, flipped over to a flat surface) liberally with cornmeal; this will allow your dough to slide off the peel/sheet pan onto your pizza stone.

Once your dough is on the peel/pan, add your toppings.  Spread the goat cheese mixture on top of the dough, leaving a tiny bit of crust at the edge.  Place your thin slices of squash atop the goat cheese mixture, overlapping slightly.  Bonus points for artful patterns! Squeeze the remaining half of lemon over the top, add a drizzle of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Slide your pizza from the peel/sheet pan onto your pre-heated pizza stone or sheet pan. I find this easiest to do if I pull the oven rack out a bit so I can deposit the pizza squarely in the middle.  It won't move easily once you set it on top, so do your best to position it well. Also, if your pizza gets stuck on the peel/sheet pan, you can use a spatula to help coax the pizza off of it. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are golden-brown and the squash curl up slightly around their edges.  Remove from the oven (I pluck the entire pizza stone out of the oven, but you can also slide it onto your pizza peel/sheet tray) and sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese.

Probably the best pizza I've yet made, with a crust balanced between crispy and chewy.  The toppings also shine through - creamy, slightly melted goat cheese, lightly roasted squash, the salty tang of Parmesan, and most of all, the bright flavor of lemon keeping you interested in each bite.  And Deb was right - this goes awfully well with a glass (or two) of crisp white wine.

A note - if your lemon is on the larger side, you may want to use less than half a lemon in each application.  Just taste the goat cheese mixture and add to taste.

Coming soon!  My roommate and I are gearing up for a (mostly) weekly event called Pies and Pints, where we'll be cooking different pizzas each week and trying a new beer with it.