What does one do with a large cooked squash and a mound of veggies and stuffing? A pizza, duh! At this point, you might be thinking “huh?” but really, that’s what came to mind as I was on my way home tonight. And it was good!

Ingredients

toppings

• Pineapple salsa ( i bought this from whole foods yesterday. It makes a good complementary sauce)
• 2 Tablespoons pesto
• 1 cup cooked butternut squash sliced into thin pieces
• 1 cup of c00ked veggie mixes from yesterday (or sautee a mix of mushrooms, onions, scallions, red bell pepper, a veggie sausage, and a jalapeno)
• Cheese (i used what we had in the fridge–which is a jack cheese with dill. pretty sure good ol mozzarella would be good too)
• basil

crust (thanks Mark Bittman)

• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Active Yeast (not quick)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 T salt

♠ Equipment: Pizza stone, stand mixer  or food processor (not required)

♠ The Method

1. Put the pizza stone on the bottom rack and preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
2. Start with the crust.
3. In your mixer bowl, put in the flour, yeast, olive oil, and salt. Start the mixer on low.
4. Add in the water and let it mix until the dough forms into a ball
5. Wrap the dough ball in saran wrap. Set aside for 20 minutes…or 2 hours…

when the dough has risen some…

1. put it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and roll out thinly ( i like thin crust pizza)
2. remove top layer of parchment.
3. Put the parchment with the dough on it onto a pizza peel if you have one.
4. Top with 1-2 spoons of the salsa (I tried to use the solid portions and leave out the water–you don’t want it to get soggy).
5. Sprinkle on the veggie mix and then the cheese, distributing evenly.
6. I use a pizza peel to slide the whole thing into the oven.
7. bake about 20 mins or until the crust is golden on the edges and cooked & crispy.

And there you have it. A pizza to give thanks over.