When Gourmet and Home Made Combine...

...their forced become one heck of an affordable meal!

I am lucky in that two of my very best girlfriends from college, Alexa and Libby, live within 3 blocks of me here in Boston. Though it is a relatively small city, nothing beats having close, amazing friends near by. We try to cook together as often as possible, and now that we all live in the same three block radius, we'll be able to do so more often!

A series of email exchanges lead us to the idea of making pizza for this week's dinner together. Libby had dinner at a Boston restaurant featuring gourmet pizzas. From this restaurant she got the idea for a pizza with goat cheese, sauteed onions, parmesan cheese, and a sauce made from squash. The result? Amaaaaaazing gourmet pizza! Below is the recipe. I have to tell you, this is one of the best recipes I've tried. It's not too hard to make...you have GOT to try this one.

Goat Cheese Acorn Squash Pizza
By Alexa, Jen & Libby


For the Crust
1/3 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 2/3 cups White Flour
1/2 packet Whole Wheat Yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups room temperature water
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
For the Toppings
1/2 Acorn Squash
1 TBSP Blue Bonnet Butter
1/2 cup Skim Milk
Salt
Pepper
6 oz Goat Cheese
2/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
2 small Onions

Combine the yeast & 1/2 cup 110 degree water. Allow to sit for 5 minutes (it should expand). Add rest of water & oil to this mixture. Combine with flour & salt. Knead dough 7-8 minutes. Spray a bowl with cooking spray & place dough into bowl. Cover with plastic wrap & allow to rise 75 minutes (until double in size). Once finished rising, spread out on baking pan in whatever shape you desire.

While the dough is rising, cut acorn squash into chunks and bake at 400 degrees until squash is cooked & you can work with it. Place squash into a food processor & work for about a minute. Add blue bonnet, milk, and salt & pepper (to taste). Continue in the food processor until you have the consistency of pizza sauce.

Chop the onions so that they are in rings. Saute them in a pan until they are caramelized by their natural sugars.

Spread your acorn squash sauce across uncooked pizza crust. Evenly spread the caramelized onions across your pizza. Next, place goat cheese, in chunks, all over pizza. Add some salt & pepper. Lastly, sprinkle parmesan cheese across the top of your pizza.


Bake pizza at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven. Remove & enjoy. This serves four people.


I am going to be including recipes from my weekly girls dinner. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do! And, of course, no girls dinner would be complete without wine and dessert! For the dessert recipe, keep checking in this week :).

***The squash, goat cheese & onions were all bought at the Copley Farmer's Market in Back Bay, Boston. Please support your local farmers! It's good for the economy :)