Zucchini Pizza Base

Pizza is a comfort food for my family…I usually prepare it from scratch and try new toppings for them. But from past few times I have been trying to go a little further, rather than just changing the topping I decided to experiment more with them and my first adaptation was the Vegetarian Pizza Loaf and this time instead of experimenting with the look or toppings I decided to play with the base and do something different than the usual, leaving the old school toppings. This adaptation of the base is healthier and lighter than the usual dough base pizza… My kids usually never eat zucchini, but this experiment was a win – win situation for me. As the crust was softer they loved it more, it made it easier for them to bite in. Hope you to like my version of Zucchini pizza base. Thank you and keep cooking.

Ingredients:

Pizza Base:

• 4 cups zucchini shredded/grated
• 1 egg
• 1 cup cheese (parmesan or cheddar)
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 ½ tsp dry parsley
• 2 tbsp plain flour (optional, read notes below)

Pizza Sauce:

• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 cloves garlic minced

Toppings:

The toppings I have used are based on ingredients which were available in my pantry/refrigerator and on my family preference. Feel free to experiment and create your own toppings.

• Tomato
• Baby Spinach
• Olives
• Capsicum
• Avocado
• Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chilli Flakes

Method:

Making the Base:

• We have few ways to work with zucchini and you can use which ever suits you the best

1. Shred the zucchini and put it in a muslin cloth. Squeeze out the water as much as you can by hand and for the rest to be squeezed keep some weight on it for more water to drain out. – I used this method
2. Microwave shredded Zucchini for 5 minutes, put it in muslin cloth and squeeze water out when it cools down.
3. In a pan on medium flame, add zucchini and sauté it for 2 minutes. Make sure it does not stick; burn or change colour. Remove in a muslin cloth and repeat the process of draining the water out once it cools.

• Once the zucchini is done (water squeezed out) add egg, salt, pepper, parsley, flour (if u opt to use) and cheese, mix well.
• Take half the portion of the prepared mixture forming a ball and press it on the baking paper lined on the tray.
• Press down the ball to make a round shape base, make sure it’s not too thin or thick. Just of equal thickness.

• Put the base in the preheated oven on 230° C for 18 to 20 mins. Keep checking; it should get a brown crust on it, but not over done as we need to put the base again in the oven.
• Remove the base and let it rest for at least 5 mins or completely cooled down, and then flip it over.

Method for Sauce:

• Mix all ingredients for the Sauce and keep aside.

Assembly of the pizza:

• It’s very important that the base has cooled down before applying/adding sauce.
• Apply the sauce and then add the toppings finishing with cheese.
• Put it back in the oven on 200° C for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let it rest for 5 to 8 minutes before you cut.

Notes:

• I made two pizza bases one with flour in it and one without flour. Honestly I did not find much difference in the texture. They both were equally soft, but increasing the quantity of flour might help it to get firmer than without. But I could taste the flour, which was not what I preferred. So remember if you plan to add more flour u got to be ready to taste it. The one without flour was little soft but I prefer soft over flour taste. So it’s totally your choice.
• It is very important to let the base cool down at both occasions, as rest time allows the base to get firmer, if you apply sauce or try to cut it when hot it would get messy and hard to handle as it would be very soft and break easily.
• After eating the pizza for dinner, we had couple of slices left over which I covered and put it in the refrigerator. Next afternoon I micro waved them for 30 secs, and to my surprise they were firmer and tasted better than the night before…. May be next time I am going to cook the base in advance and refrigerate them for few hours before I add toppings and cook them… After all it’s all about experimenting…