Please note that this recipe is Paleo with AIP substitutions.
Have you ever seen squash blossoms (also known as zucchini blossoms)? I’ve seen them before but I’ve never taken the plunge. Lately they have been all over my farmer’s market and I thought I should give them a try.
The most common way of preparing them is stuffing them in cheese then deep frying them. In fact, most of the recipes I found using the blossoms included cheese which is what led me to pizza. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?!
I wanted the cheese and squash blossoms to shine so I didn’t use a tomato based pizza sauce. I made my own garlic and herb sauce with olive oil. I like it spicy so I used red pepper flakes. If you don’t want any heat then just add a pinch of red pepper flakes so you don’t feel the heat, you just taste the flavor.
Squash Blossom Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 Gluten Free Pizza Dough or AIP friendly pizza dough
- 12 Squash Blossoms rinsed, stems removed, and sliced in half lengthwise
- 4 Garlic chopped
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Oregano chopped
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Thyme chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (AIP Reintroduction, optional)
- 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Fresh Parsley chopped
- 2 cups Mozzarella shredded (AIP Reintroduction or AIP friendly substitute)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Roll out dough on a floured surface. It can be round or a rectangle depending upon your pizza pan.
- Place rolled out dough on a baking sheet.
- In a small saucepan, add olive oil, garlic, oregano, thyme and red pepper flakes.
- Cook over low heat for about 3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
- Place the olive oil mixture on the prepared crust.
- Then top with squash blossoms, mozzarella and then a handful of parsley on the dough.
- Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted, and the crust is golden, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the pizza occasionally to ensure even browning.
- Transfer the pizza to a cutting board, cut into slices and then serve.
Nutrition
Do you cut the flowers in half or leave them whole? Looks delicious.
You can leave them whole. They are so delicate they just collapse when cooked.
It looks inviting and taste even better!
I'm so glad you posted this! I had squash blossom pizza at Frannys in Brooklyn last weekend, and I wanted to recreate it at home. All other recipes I found used tomato sauce or ricotta, which my Original pizza lacked, so the herb oil was perfect.
I made this last night, but I have 2 questions.
1- where was I supposed to use parsley? I skipped it.
2- where was there sausage? A misprint perhaps? Check out step 9.
In any case I'm going to be using this herb oil all summer long on my pizzas! I find pizza sauce too over powering for some more delicate veggies.
Thanks!
Ahh! There's no sausage and the parsley is supposed to be sprinkled on top (skipping the parsley altogether wouldn't be a huge deal either). I've updated the recipe.
I'm so sorry about the errors. I need a copy editor, stat! I'm so glad that the recipe still worked for you.
I'm inspired! I have seen them, but have always shied away. Love how you have used them here.
Thanks! Let me know if you try the recipe. I'd love your feedback.