Burrata Pumpkin Pizza w/ Prosciutto + Broccolini
When it comes to pizza, people generally boil down to two categories.
The first are pizza purists, the ones with a sworn allegiance to thin crusts, red sauce, and loads of mozzarella cheese. The second type, the one I so happen to fall in, like their pizza any way we can get it.
Hawaiian, BBQ, Tex-Mex?! HELL YES.
We do not discriminate, we will not pass up a slice — If you’re calling it a pizza, we’re giving it a try. Period.
Seasonal-style pizzas are a great way to experiment with fresh produce, and since pumpkin is October’s most famous food, making a pumpkin pizza was a given. Most pumpkin recipes tend to enhance its sweet flavor, but for this pizza I wanted the taste to be decidedly savory with just the slightest hint of sweet. So I decided to season the crap out of my homemade dough (dried basil, parsley, & oregano!), add a mix of broccolini (bitter), lemon juice (tang!), and proscuitto (salty), then smother the whole damn thang in burrata, because why not?!
Burrata is always a good idea.
I made my dough using a standard recipe from Fleischmann’s yeast that takes all of ten minutes, so it’s more than manageable for beginners. If you want to be extra fast you can always use store-bought dough, but why not push yourself and give it a whirl?! You’ll never learn if you don’t. Beyond the dough there’s a series of cubing and cutting (cube the pumpkin, cut the broccolini florets from their stems) but after that, you’re set! Mold the dough to a baking pan, layer with toppings, and bake.
15 minutes is all this pretty little pumpkin pizza needs.
Without the usual pumpkin-flavor enhancers (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) the pumpkin tastes very squash-like here, with just a subtle hint of sweet pumpkin flavor to detect it. And the texture turns out awesome, too — soft to the point of creamy, the cooked pumpkin stands out against the crisped broccolini, velvety burrata, and salty meat.
It’s got a lot going on, yet simple at the same time.
Like any pizza you can make this as an app, a snack, a meal, whatever! And if you want to top MORE fresh burrata on top of the baked burrata?!
That’d be a pretty stellar idea as well.
Burrata Pumpkin Pizza w/ Prosciutto + Broccolini
Ingredients:
- PIZZA DOUGH:
- 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
- 1 envelope instant yeast (I used Fleischmann’s)
- a pinch of sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 2/3 cup very warm water
- 3 tbsps canola oil
- Crisco to grease
- TOPPINGS:
- 1 small pumpkin
- 8 oz broccolini
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1 1/2 tsps crushed or minced garlic
- a pinch of salt & pepper
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
- several Italian spices (I used dried basil, oregano, parsley, & red pepper flakes!)
- 4 oz proscuitto, sliced
- 8 oz burrata cheese, torn
- fresh basil to garnish
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 425F. Amply grease baking pan with Crisco.
- Begin by preparing the pizza dough. In large mixing bowl combine one cup of flour, the yeast, sugar, and salt, whisking gently until combined. Add the warm water and canola oil until well mixed, then slowly incorporate the remaining cup of flour until the dough takes shape. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth and elastic, then allow to rest/rise for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, on a large cutting board cube the pumpkin and remove the broccolini florets from their stems — transfer both to a mixing bowl. Toss the pumpkin and broccolini in lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper, and 2 tbsps EVOO until evenly coated, then set aside.
- When ready, roll out the dough as needed, then mold to greased baking pan. Brush the dough (including the crust!) with the remaining 2 tbsps EVOO, then season with your choice of Italian spices. Next, build the pizza with layers of proscuitto, burrata, and pumpkin/broccolini mix until all ingredients have been used. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the crust has browned and the cheese bubbling, then immediately plate and serve.
