Sunday Cooking Project: The Final Butternut

Well, here is very last butternut squash in my stash. Or should I say, there it was? It’s gone, gone, gone now.

I guess it’s possible that another butternut squash will find its way into my hands before next fall, and I do have some frozen squash soup and the like, but this is the last squash remaining from the pile I had squirreled away for the winter. Contemplating the consumption of this final squash felt pretty momentous… and then I decided to use it as a pizza topping. Maybe not the most dignified way to go out, but so it goes.

Here’s the recipe I used for the dough, more or less:

Stir together and let sit until bubbly:
2 C warm water
2 tbs honey
3 tsp active dry yeast

Whisk in 5-6 cups of flour and 3 tsp salt. I used 3-4 cups whole wheat, and the rest was white.

When you can’t whisk anymore, knead it all together for a few minutes, and then cover and let it rise in a warm place for an hour or so. Then divide it in two and flatten it out on greased cookie sheets. I sprinkled cornmeal on the cookie sheets too.

For the topping, I did a few different things. I peeled and sliced The Final Butternut and tossed it with olive oil, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper, and then I baked it at 400 for 20-30 mins. I also caramelized some red onions- actually, I went pretty heavy on the onions, three of them for two pizzas, but they were cooked till they were all sweet and rich-tasting, so it wasn’t too oniony.

To assemble the pizza, first I brushed the top of the crust with olive oil, then put down some sliced raw garlic. Then I added a thin layer of ricotta (from The Farmstead at Mine Brook, so good), then the onions and squash, and finally grated a bunch of parm (or something like it) on top. I was also pretty generous with the black pepper, because I love black pepper. Why else?

Bake the whole thing at 450 for 15-20 mins.

Obviously, you can do a ton of different things with butternut squash for pizza. This is just one combination that worked really well. Here’s the end result, looking all warm and tasty: