Not everything that has veggies in it is automatically called vegetarian. One of the few things in life that give you more pleasure also happens to be pizza. And believe me when I tell you about this corn zucchini pizza that’ll knock your socks off. Since I like favor fine flavors over flamboyant recipes, I think you’ll find this pizza recipe will coming back for seconds or thirds!
Here’s how to make it yourself.
Corn and Zucchini Pizza (with Lime and Cilantro)
First of all, you need to start with your dough, and you’ll have enough to make three 10-inch pizzas from this recipe. Start with your main
ingredients:
· 1 tablespoon dry yeast (instant packet)
· 1 cups of warm water
· 2 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin)
· 1 teaspoons kosher salt
· 3 to 4 cups flour (bread flour)
Instructions:
Start with a large mixing bowl or in the large bowl you use for your stand mixer. Add your warm water followed by the packet of dry yeast. Use a whisk to mix this into the water and then needs to stand for at least 5 minutes.
After this, you add your olive oil and salt to the water. Using a handheld flour sifter, you then add your flour. This reduces the hydration time and you don’t get any lumps either. If you’re mixing by hand, use a wooden spoon to combine this into the dough. Using a stand mixer is much faster starting on medium, adding more flour to get it thicker. You’ll need to reduce the speed to low as it thickens. The dough should look silky at this point.
Mixing by hand will require using your knuckles and palms to knead the dough. This can take up to 8 minutes to get the best consistency. You don’t add all of your flour for hand mixing since you’ll need to keep the dough from sticking to you. The finished dough will be slightly sticky and have a sheen that lets you know it’s properly kneaded. Rub a little olive oil onto the surface while forming it into a ball.
Your dough is then placed into a separate bowl that is also oiled on the inside. Make sure this dough ball is completely coated with oil and then cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel. Find a place in your kitchen to let this rise for no more than 1-hour. It needs to double in size, so the warmer an area you choose, the faster your dough can expand. If you’re not in a hurry, put it into your fridge overnight.
The next day, you can take out your dough and let it return to room temperature after two hours. This will make your dough develop deeper flavors that you would have missed if you made it in 1-hour.
Preparing your toppings
This is a good time to chop and prepare your toppings and put them into little bowls for sorting. You also need a cutting board, knife, cheese grater, and a garlic press.
· 2 cloves garlic (minced)
· cup fresh corn kernels (one ear of corn or use frozen corn kernels)
· 4 cups Mozarella cheese (shredded)
· 1 small yellow (or red) onion (thinly sliced)
· 3 small zucchini (thinly sliced)
· 1 cups feta cheese (crumbled)
· cup cilantro leaves (roughly chopped)
· 2 limes (quarter sliced)
· 3 tablespoons olive oil (to make garlic oil)
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt (added to your garlic oil)
· Yellow cornmeal for pizza dough (for dusting your pizza stone)
· Fresh ground black pepper (added to your corn kernels)
Making your pizza
This part starts with organizing your oven and the racks inside. Now you position one rack at the highest rung and the other one at the lowest rung. Both of these racks need to have a pizza stone but if not, there’s another method. If you don’t have a pizza stone, then use a pastry cookie sheet that’s flipped over. You’ll need three of these. Preheat your oven to 450F degrees.
At this point, you can mix your garlic, salt, and olive oil in a small bowl, this will be used later. Now go to your pizza dough and cut the ball into 3 individual pieces. These can be formed into round balls and allow to rise a bit more. Take your cookie sheets and add a small amount of olive oil to the surface where the pizza will sit, scatter some cornmeal over the top so this allows the crust to get crispier as it cooks.
Now you can shape your dough into 10-inch discs that are then placed onto the cookie sheet. Mix the black pepper with your corn kernels and line up all your pizzas so you can make them all at once. Place mozzarella on first and leave at least -inch around the edge of the rim without the cheese. Now you scatter your onions followed by the zucchini slices. Then sprinkle this with your feta cheese and corn.
Take the first pizza and place it into the oven onto the lower rack. Now let your pizza cook for 8 minutes. After this, you need to move your pizza to the upper rack for another 8 minutes. Please use an oven mitt since the oven and cookie sheet will be hot! This is when you can add your second pizza to the lower rack. Keeping track of these cooking times will be essential to not burn your pizza.
When it’s time to move the second pizza to the top for 8 minutes, move the first one to the lower rack for an additional 5 minutes. This helps make the crust get nice and crispy. After that, the first pizza can be removed. This method continues until all your pizzas are cooked. After reach pizza comes out of the oven, use the garlic oil to coat the edge of your pizza along the rim. You scatter some cilantro on the top and squeeze lime juice onto the top.
Serving your pizza
Wait 5 minutes for each pizza and use a trusty pizza cutter. This recipe can feed up to 4 or 5 people and is great for a pizza party or pizza night with the family. Enjoy this pizza with some red wine or Sangria. Your pizza fans will rave at how great this veggie pizza turned out!
