PIZZA: Butternut Squash Cheese Sauce with Roasted Vegetables

A twist on one of the peoples' favourites - PIZZA. I first had the idea when I was making mac and cheese and I thought wow I wonder if this butternut squash cheese sauce would be good on a pizza base instead of using the traditional tomato sauce. This then led to the idea of topping it with roasted vegetables and voilá, a new take on pizza.

Now if you're like me and you are not mad on cheese or mustard, despise cottage cheese and are only starting to warm to butternut squash, then I couldn't recommend this sauce enough, Makes sense right?!😂I used to be a fussy eater when I was younger and in the last few years I have warmed to liking more and more types of food. I didn't even used to like curry, and that's saying something! The point I'm making is that try something even though you know that the ingredients in it are ones you don't like, because they may just work and together to create a taste you'll love!

Makes 3 pizzas.

Ingredients (pizza base):        

• 1tsp yeast
• 600g Strong White Flour
• 2tbsp Olive Oil
• 2tsp salt
• 340ml Water

    

Ingredients (Butternut Squash Cheese Sauce):

• 1 Butternut Squash
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Black Pepper
• 1/2 Pint Milk
• 3tsp Cornflour
• 1/4 Cup Cottage Cheese
• Assortment of Cheese e.g. Cheddar, Parmesan, Red Leicester (grated)
• 2tsp Wholegrain mustard (I use Maille brand)
• Knob of butter

       

Ingredients (Toppings):

• 1/4 Butternut Squash
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Black Pepper
• 1 Red Onion
• 1 Pepper
• 1 Courgette
• 1 Big Tomato
• 6 Sage Leaves
• 8-10 Basil Leaves
• Mozzerella grated

Note: I used a bread machine for my dough, but if you don't have one you could make your own by hand or you can buy plain pizza bases and 'Jus-Rol' pizza from the supermarkets. 

Instructions:

Step 1: Get your pizza base ready. If you are using a bread machine measure all the ingredients and put them in order of how they are listed in the bread machine bowl and set it to your general pizza dough setting on your machine. For instance, mine said to do it on 'Pizza' 'Dough' '45 minutes'.

Step 2: Once your dough is ready, put the oven on at 180℃ fan and split the dough into three balls. Then get some flour to sprinkle on the surface and start to roll each one out. It can be any shape and thickness you want, it doesn't need to be perfect. For example, my bases were thin and a couple were squared shape and the other was circular. Once you have done that put each of them on a tray, prong them with a fork and put in the oven for 10 minutes. The pizza bases will only be partially cooked at this stage.

Step 3: Now it's time to move onto the sauce. Firstly set the oven to 200℃ fan, get your butternut squash and start to peel and then chop into small cubes. Next drizzle some olive oil on a tray and tip the butternut squash in and add a sprinkle of salt and black pepper on top. Now pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until soft. Make sure to shake the tray every now and then to loosen the squash when cooking.

Step 4: Whilst that's cooking put the milk in a medium size saucepan and cook on a low heat. Then mix the cornflour with a bit of water and pour in a bit at a time whilst stirring. Once done add the cottage cheese, the assortment of grated cheese, the wholegrain mustard and the butter. Stir that all in and turn off the heat.

Step 5: Once the butternut squash is soft enough, take it out the oven and pour 3/4 of it in a blender and leave 1/4 of it aside for later. Add some of the cheese sauce and blend until you have a smooth paste. Now put that mixture in the saucepan with the rest of the cheese sauce and stir. Once all stirred in, leave it to one side.

Step 6: Set the oven to 180℃ fan and start to chop up all of the vegetables from the 'toppings section' (apart from the basil and sage) in to the size you did for the butternut squash. Then use the same tray as you did for the butternut squash, drizzle some more oil in and pour the vegetables in. Now sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and put in the oven for 12 minutes.

Step 7: Whilst the vegetables are roasting distribute and spread your butternut squash cheese sauce over the three pizza bases. Now finely slice your sage and basil leaves and put to one side.

Step 8: Once the vegetables are roasted, distribute them evenly over the three pizzas, along with the 1/4 butternut squash, sage and basil leaves. To finish off, grate some mozzarella over and put in the oven for 5 minutes at 180℃ fan.

It's great to serve with a side salad, hope you enjoy!