It’s hard to not love a good pizza. I admit that when I eat out I usually go for the more traditional versions with tomato sauce and very few toppings, because it is hard to go wrong with simple, fresh ingredients in the Italian tradition. At home I will try and make more exotic pizza with different types of toppings as well as the traditional ones.
Jim Lahey, a legendary bread maker who owns a bakery in Manhattan called Sullivan Bakery, makes a wonderful zucchini pizza. The simple ingredients are very tasty and this is a good way of getting those green vegetables in your meal. His recipe requires breadcrumbs, which gives the pizza a nice crunchy texture.
If you want to keep your pizza on the healthy, unprocessed, and natural side, make sure that your breadcrumbs are made from only natural ingredients. Most breadcrumbs found in the supermarket have a long list of bad ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup.
Homemade breadcrumbs are easy to make using a stale leftover baguette (which should be made from natural ingredients). See my recipe here for “DiepLicious Homemade Breadcrumbs”.
The pan-grilled style of pizza dough is made from Craig W. Priebe’s recipe, which is a bit easier and quicker to make and handle than Jim Lahey’s. I like both dough recipes so you can choose either one. If you make Jim Lahey’s dough recipe, you can spread the dough out on a big olive oil greased baking pan instead of making a disk. You can find both recipes under the links below:
“Craig W. Priebe’s grilled pizza recipe”
“Jim Lahey basic pizza dough recipe”
- • Grilled pizza dough, see recipe under link above
- • 2 ½ pounds (1.2 kg) of zucchini, grated
- • 1 ½ (10 grams) tablespoons salt
- • 2 cups (150 grams) Gruyere or high quality Swiss cheese, grated
- • 2 -2 ½ tablespoons (20-25 grams) homemade breadcrumbs
- 1. Prepare the pizza dough.
- 2. Preheat the oven to 500°F.
- 3. Grate the zucchini by hand or use a food processor. Toss the zucchini in a medium bowl with salt and let it rest for about 15-20 min. This process helps draw water out of the zucchini.
- 4. Drain the zucchini in a strainer and use your hands to squeeze the excess water out. Pat the zucchini dry and toss with the grated cheese until well mixed.
- 5. Roll your disk of pizza dough out, and grill on both sides with your grill pan, spreading the zucchini on top and along the edges. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs on top.
- 6. Bake the grilled pizza in the oven just enough so the toppings turn golden brown. Take the pizza out and eat it either hot or at room temperature.