6/29/15

Video: Squash Blossom Pizza


You should make this pizza for the same people you had over for the rice-cooker pancake. They will think you are a really special cook/host/individual.

Squash Blossom Pizza adapted from The Mozza Cookbook
makes two 10-inch pizzas

20-24 fresh squash blossoms (see NOTE)
1 lb. of pizza dough, room temperature
handful of flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil plus more to finish the pizzas with
1/2 cup of tomato sauce
8 oz. of burrata that you've let hang out at room temperature for at least 30 minutes though it's even better if the cheese is at room temperature
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper

NOTE: The Mozza Cookbook doesn't specify whether to use male or female blossoms, BUT according to Marcella Hazan: "Only the male, those on a stem, are good to eat. The female blossoms, attached to the zucchini, are mushy and don't taste good." Therefore, I was sure to buy only the male blossoms. (Here's a picture for you. The top one is male.) (p.s. Can anyone refute this information?)

Preheat your oven to 500F.

Trim and discard the stems from the squash blossoms. Cut a slit down the side of the blossoms, open them up with your fingers, and cut out and discard the stamens. Here is where you want to check for bugs and give the blossoms a good rinse. Then you'll want to pat them dry.

Using your hands and a floured work surface, split your dough in half as evenly as you can. And then stretch one portion of it into a flat, roughly ten-inch disk. (I like to lay my finished disk on a piece of parchment paper and then  slide the parchment onto my baking sheet.)

Brush the rim of the dough with olive oil and season the entire surface with salt. Ladle or spoon 1/4 cup of the sauce onto the center of the dough and use the back of the ladle or soon in a circular motion to spread the sauce over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1-inch rim without any sauce.

Working from the outside of the pizza toward the center, and still leaving space for the crust, lay the squash blossoms in two concentric circles, plus two blossoms in the very center, covering the pizza in a single layer.

(Before you slide it into the oven, prepare your second pizza. That way, you can pull the first one out and put the second one in straight away. Or, if you have two baking sheets that can fit in your oven at the same time, cook them both at once!)

Slide the pizza(s) into the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown and crispy, 8 to 12 minutes.  Remove the pizza from the oven. Cut the burrata into four equal segments, placing one segment on each quadrant of the pizza. Finish with olive oil, a bit more sea salt and some black pepper. Serve.

15 comments:

Matthew said...

We raised a very capable bug spotter. xoxo

Mark and Marsha said...

That pizza is beautiful. And we liked Blossom, especially Dr. John's opening song. It was hip-tang. Teddy, of course, is precious.

Mark and Marsha said...

That pizza is beautiful. And we liked Blossom, especially Dr. John's opening song. It was hip-tang. Teddy, of course, is precious.

Anonymous said...

mmm this pizza looks very delicious and teddy is incredibly cute and such a helper. that smile definitely made me smile at my computer screen.

Dani Elis said...

It looks beautiful and delicious! Love the bug spotting :)

HeartSoulFlour said...

teddy is the cutest!!

Unknown said...

Rebe and I went to Italy last year and the squash blossom pizza was our faaaaave! Also loving the "buh" spotting

smoothness said...

not sure i can officially refute, but i bought female ones from my local farmer's market and they were indeed very mushy (the inside especially) even though extremely fresh

Booby and the Beast said...

I don't like cleaning my brush either. :) Teddy is precious! And you've inspired me to work on my own video, which I'm hoping to post in the next couple of weeks if I don't chicken out first.

Mary Anne said...

we made this last night with squash blossoms we harvested from our FREE neighborhood garden! delish!!

Unknown said...

YAS. Looks gorgeous and I really appreciate the in-house baby.

This is probably the one thing on the menu I haven't had but I do enjoy the fried squash blossoms.
Moving back to Boston with my Matt in a few months, I'll probably eat Mozza every few days until that happens, let me know if you'd like to join ;-)

Carmen said...

1. i love seeing teddy in these videos - especially after having met him
2. i also use pomi when making a sauce
3. i have been thinking (not hard, but thinking nonetheless) about what to do with the zucchini blossoms from our zucchini plant and am excited to have this be a potential plan for them...need to act soon because plant is dying
4. i used to hate cleaning the brush too but then found that if i just squirted dish soap right into the palm of my hand and sort of painted the brush around in there it got the oil off pretty thoroughly and my hands were squeaky clean too....at least one of them

NicoleD said...

Ok, I've been dreaming about this pizza since you first posted it and now I have squash blossoms! Just wondering if the 8 oz of burrata is for 2 pizzas or for one because you said to divide it into 4 sections. And is that enough squash blossoms for 1 or 2 pizzas? Thanks! Making this tomorrow and I CANNOT wait!

Amelia Morris said...

@NicoleD congratulations on your squash-blossom acquisition! Assuming you are making two 10-inch pizzas, you want 4 oz. per 10-inch pizza. (If you're making one large pizza, which you could do, then use all 8 oz. on the large pizza.) Ditto with the squash blossoms. Like 10-12 blossoms per 10-inch pizza. Make sense?

NicoleD said...

Yes! Thanks, Amelia :)