I am kind of amazed that we have never posted a flatbread or pizza recipe here. It might seem like we don’t eat pizza very often, which is not completely true. Both of us really enjoy a pizza from time to time, although in most cases it's the homemade kind. When I talk about pizza with friends I normally don’t tell them this, but I actually don’t like cheese on pizza… When I do tell them I get a weird glance back. Probably, if you are a pizza with cheese lover, the glance you are giving the screen right now.
But hear me out! When I say I don’t like cheese on a pizza, I actually mean that I don’t like the greasy, salty kind that hides all the other flavors. For me pizza is actually a good way to eat a bunch of vegetables straight from the oven and very easy to make. I like to use spelt or rye to create simple pizza dough and then top it with loads of vegetables. I add a bit of mozzarella, goats or ricotta cheese, and when I am eating pizza with friends, I add a bit more.
This ‘flatbread’ or ‘pizza’, depending on how you want to call it is made with rye flour. You have maybe heard of broccoli or cauliflower pizza bases (start making them if you haven’t! They are heaven). This one is made in a similar way, with zucchini! It takes some time for the base to completely dry out, but since the taste was so good, we wanted to share it anyway. You mix the dough by grating the zucchini first and then draining it. This part is very important because zucchini is pretty wet when grated, and if you don’t do it, you will end up with a zucchini and rye soup. Then you mix in the eggs and the rye and you are done. It is quite simple to make, since it doesn't require yeast or the kneading a ‘traditional’ dough needs, but the texture after baking is also a bit different. It is more soft and kind of similar to cauliflower pizza crusts.
For the pizza sauce we wanted to create something a bit different than the usual tomato sauce that we normally make. It is full of flavor because of the sun-dried tomatoes and rich because of the cashews. Combined with the toppings this pizza tastes how we think the forest would taste, would it be edible and a pizza.
Pizza crust
1 zucchini (300 gram)
Rye flour (100 gram)
2 eggs
Preheat to oven to 180 degrees (360 F) and line a baking tray with baking paper (or use a pizza stone). Grate the zucchini with the peel and drain the liquid. This can be done by gently pressing it into a sieve or a cheesecloth. When completely dry combine the zucchini with the egg and the rye flour and spread the dough out onto the baking tray. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, add the sauce and the toppings and bake for another 20 minutes (or until it is completely dry)
Sauce
1 cup cashews (soaked overnight)
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (with oil)
Tsp oregano
Tsp chili powder
1 clove garlic (peeled)
Mix all ingredients in the food processor, if necessary add some oil from the sun-dried tomatoes.
Topping
Handful arugula
Handful cherry tomatoes
10 Asparagus (halved horizontally and grilled in a pan)
2 tbsp ricotta
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