pizza pizza

making a pizza at home is fun. as a child, english muffin pizzas were a staple of my diet: thomas' english muffin, aunt millie's jarred sauce and polly-o mozzarella. those are three products i wouldn't really eat these days, but updating that easy-to-make classic is a cinch.

this past year i made a lot of pizzas, and it is easy to realize what a tabula rasa that dough can be. i'd like to say i made my own dough but when you live near a good pizzeria (sal's on avenue A and 7th street) and they sell the dough for $3, it's hard to get motivated to go to the trouble of making your own.

this weekend i made one based on a recipe in a new cookbook my friend gave me (an impromptu gift--the best kind!). i think the book is called "entertaining for a veggie planet," and it is really great. she calls this "henry's pizza" because her cat henry likes to eat it. this is weird to me, not because her cat eats pizza but because this pizza is so good, i simply would not share it with my cat. all for me.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH ONION PIZZA

preheat oven to 350 degrees
peel, seed and small dice a butternut squash
toss with olive oil, minced garlic clove, salt and pepper and place in a baking dish
roast for 20 minutes or so, or until soft and brownish

bump oven temp up to 490 degrees
slice one or two large yellow onions
saute in a pan with olive oil for 15-20 minutes until caramelized
finely chop about ten sage leaves

take pre-bought pizza dough and stretch to fit your pizza tin, poke some holes
cover with butternut squash, then onions, then sage, then some crumbled goat cheese
sprinkle with the grey sea salt you keep by your stove
bake for 20 minutes (ish--just keep an eye on it)

this pizza rocks.
even the next day.
and the next.
i know from experience.