In what feels like a past life (long before moving to Greensboro, NC), I taught kids’ cooking classes. After making countless batches of pizza dough, I used to have the recipe memorized. I hadn’t made pizza dough in a long time (due to living next to Cugino Forno), but the combination of sweet butternut squash with savory broccolini inspired me to make this flatbread recipe twice in the past two weeks; it’s that good. Needless to say, we did not top the kids’ pizza with this combo, but you may (or may not) be surprised by what kids would be willing to eat.

Note: if you don’t have or don’t like this combo of toppings, this dough is the perfect vehicle to use up what you already have on hand, i.e. half a container of cherry tomatoes, cooked broccoli from the night before, a jar of olives, etc.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 3/4 C. warm tap water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 C. flour (I used 1 1/2 C. bread flour and 1/2 C. whole wheat flour)
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• Olive oil

Ingredients for the toppings:

• 1 head of broccolini
• 1 small or half of large butternut squash
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Sharp parmesan, to taste
• Shredded mozzarella, to taste

Directions for the dough:

1. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the warm water. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flours and salt to combine. Slowly stream in the yeast mixture until a shaggy dough forms.
2. Switch to the dough hook attachment, and knead until a smooth dough forms, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size.

(OK, now on to the DELICIOUS toppings! You’re doing great!)

Directions for everything else:

1. In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 400’F. Peel and chop the butternut squash into about 1″ pieces. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, drizzle liberally with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, toss to coat, and bake until fork tender, about 40 min.
2. Increase the oven temperature to 500’F. Place the chopped broccolini on a parchment lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, toss to coat, and bake until just tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Split the dough in half. On two parchment lined baking sheets, stretch the dough until fairly thin (mine turned out to be 10″x12″).
4. Top the dough with a layer of mozzarella, butternut squash, and broccolini. Sprinkle with parmesan and more mozzarella cheese, as desired. I like to top it with less cheese than a pizza, to let the other flavors shine.
5. Bake until golden brown (about 12 minutes).
6. Let cool for 5 minutes, then cut and serve. Enjoy!

–Leah and Jeff