Week 49, Recipe 1: Roasted Veggie Pizza

NOTES

• Roasting the veggies adds so much flavor!
• Modified from Cooking Light
• See my notes in Recipe 5 about freezing pizza dough and thawing in the fridge for an easy weeknight meal.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pizza dough
• 2 cups sliced white mushrooms
• 1 small to medium size zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, sliced and 1/2 medium red or orange bell pepper, sliced
• 1 medium red onion, cut into thick slices
• Olive oil, divided
• 1/3 cup tomato sauce
• 1 - 1 1/2  cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 2 tablespoons small fresh basil leaves

DIRECTIONS

1. Position an oven rack in the lowest setting; place a pizza stone on rack if you have one. Preheat oven to 500°.

2. Combine mushrooms and next 4 ingredients (through onion) in a large bowl; drizzle with approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Toss. Arrange vegetables on baking or cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 500° for 15 minutes, stirring once.
3. Roll out pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface and place on an oiled pizza pan. Spread sauce over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella over sauce; top with vegetables. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella and red pepper over zucchini mixture. Dollop with ricotta.
4. Cook (you can place your pizza pan right on the stone if using) for about 5 minutes or until dry then slide pizza off pan onto pizza stone (or continue baking on pizza pan if not using stone). Bake at 500° for about 11 minutes or until crust is golden. Sprinkle with basil.