Acorn Squash Pizza

Dan here today. First off, a quick public service announcement: if you live in a large apartment complex, please do not pull the fire alarm in the middle of the night. Your neighbors will not be happy. Thank you. Okay, on to today’s recipe. I had a number of acorn squash lying around and was trying to figure out a way to use them. It occurred to me that I could make a filling similar to the one I made for the butternut squash lasagna and use that in place of a sauce. The final result was quite tasty, although I couldn’t quite decide whether to make it savory or sweet. I considered taking it in a pumpkin pie direction with the spices but only went about halfway there. If I do it again, I might go all the way and add some ginger and cloves.

Ingredients:

1 lb pizza dough (if you love to bake you can make it yourself, but it’s much easier to just buy a box of dough balls from Sam’s Club)

2 medium acorn squash

3/4 c ricotta cheese

1/4 c parmesan

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

cooking spray

1 c mozzarella

dried basil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.

2. Cut acorn squash in half and see them. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray and place the squash halves, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Roast for 30 min.

3. Remove the squash from the oven and scoop the flesh into the bowl of a food processor. This can be problematic because the squash tend to be hot, but at least the flesh comes out easily.

4. Reset the oven temp to 450 deg F.

5. Add the ricotta, parmesan, and spices, and process until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings if desired.

6. On a floured cooking sheet, roll out the pizza dough. Spread the filling on top of the dough and then sprinkle the mozzarella over it. Sprinkle a little basil on top of the mozzarella if desired.

7. Bake for 14 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice, and serve.