Butternut Squash, Spinach, and Caramelized Onion Pizza

You can go all out with this recipe, or you can take short cuts...like I did.  I can attest even with the shortcuts, this pizza was quite tasty!

You'll need the following ingredients:

• Pizza dough - I purchased thin crust pizza dough.  I clearly do not have the patience to make my own dough.
• 1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach - you can purchase fresh spinach if frozen doesn't cut it for you.
• 1 bag of frozen cubed butternut squash - you can purchase fresh cubed squash, or just fresh squash and cube it up yourself if you want to be a rockstar.  Me?  I just want to get to the couch ASAP with my dinner.
• 1 small onion sliced
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Minced garlic 
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Sugar

First, take a reasonable amount of butternut squash ( I totally eye balled this, and thought this looks like enough to cover the pizza), toss with a little olive oil and minced garlic.  Line a cookie sheet, and roast the squash for about 30 minutes at 350.  If you go with fresh squash, you'll likely need to roast it a little longer.

The most time consuming part of this recipe is caramelizing the onions, but I can say it's definitely worth it, as I think this is the ingredient that brings the whole pizza together.  In a saute pan, add olive oil - roughly 2-3 tablespoons should do it.  Add your sliced onion, and slowly cook over medium-low to low heat, stirring often, for about 30 minutes.  Half way through sprinkle the onion with a little salt, and a little sugar.

Before

Throw the frozen chopped spinach in the microwave.  Once its cooked, make sure you drain it.  You don't want soggy spinach on your pizza.  If you go with fresh spinach, I recommend sauteing it with a little olive oil and minced garlic.

Take your pizza dough and first layer on the spinach.  At this point, if you are like me, you are anxious to put this whole pizza together, but instead I'm slowly stirring my onions to perfection.  La la la.  Oh, I know, the mozzarella cheese is still in the fridge, I'll get that.  Layer on some cheese.  Back to stirring....which is fine the squash is still roasting anyways.  Tick tock, tick tock.  The onions are done!

Remove the squash from the oven, and jack up the heat to 425.  Layer on the squash, then the onions, sprinkle on a little more cheese, and throw the pizza in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Now you all know I'm obsessed with the pizza stone, so hopefully you are using one, and I hope you remembered to throw some corn meal on it so your dough doesn't stick.

After. 

So while the pizza is cooking, grab a beer to kill the time, and then enjoy the deliciousness of this pizza!  Happy Friday!