Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about pizza made with pumpkin. It’s actually very good. I had first made it a few years back, based on a recipe we got from someone, but recently I wanted to do so again and couldn’t find the recipe.
So I made some up. I modified an existing crust recipe to make it a wheat crust, and arranged toppings that I thought would be tasty (and they were).

Pumpkin pizzas

Crust for 1 pizza (modified version of a recipe from Carolyn Yackel):

1.75 tablespoons yeast

1 cup warm water

1.5 cups white flour

1 cup wheat flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

extra flour or corn meal for pan and for handling dough

Toppings:

0.5 lb gouda cheese, shredded (per pizza)

1 small to medium pie pumpkin

1 or 2 portabella mushroom caps, sliced

1 to 1.5 cups chopped fresh spinach

dried sage leaf to taste

cinnamon to taste

First, cook the pumpkin. Do this by slicing the pumpkin in half vertically, scooping out the guts, and placing the halves cut side down in a baking pan. Fill the pan with a half-inch of water, and place in the oven at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit). Cooking time should be 45 minutes or less, depending on the size of pumpkin. Test for doneness by sticking a fork through the skin into the pumpkin. It should easily pass through.

When done, drain the water and allow pumpkin halves to cool with cut side up. Then remove skin and slice flesh (quarter-inch thick slices work well).

To make the crust, put yeast in a medium to latge mixing bowl, and pour water over it. Wait a minute or two, then add other crust ingredients. Stir together until a ball of dough is formed. With floured hands, knead dough a little in bowl, then set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.

Grease a 16-inch diameter pizza pan or 10×15 inch cookie sheet, then coat the pan with corn meal or flour.

Flouring your hands to prevent sticking, flatten the dough ball in the middle of the pan and spread the dough to the edges. Add more flour as needed, and repair any tears by pressing dough back together. Make sure to have dough thicker around the edge.

2 possible topping combinations (these are the ones I tried):

  • Layer spinach on crust, covering the whole surface. Put cheese on top of spinach. Put slices of pumpkin on top of that (you’ll use one third to one half of the pumpkin), and sprinkle sage around the pizza as desired.
  • Put cheese on crust. Layer several slices of pumpkin and portabella around pizza, mostly covering cheese. Sprinkle with cinnamon as desired.

Once pizza is assembled, bake at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. It should be done when crust is hard and cheese has browned in spots.

Enjoy!