Farm to Table: Butternut Squash & Carrots
Friday’s my day off from Spells Writing Lab, so I had plenty of time to do some heavy-duty cooking for dinner, including what are probably the two most creative uses of my farm share produce. When I received a butternut squash in the first week, I knew I didn’t want to simply roast it or make a soup. My search on the Cooking Light website found this recipe for Pesto Pizza with Butternut Squash, which I immediately knew I had to try. The recipe actually references two other recipes for the dough and the pesto, both of which I made from scratch, but I’d imagine you could get away with a pre-made pizza crust and a store-bought pesto in a pinch.
I frequently use my breadmaker to make flatbread dough, so I adapted this dough recipe for the appliance. Basically, I just dissolved the yeast in warm water and put the yeast-water mixture and the oil into the breadmaker. Then I added the dry ingredients (which I whisked together first for good measure) and started the pizza dough cycle. I usually use a spoon during this cycle to make sure all the dry ingredients are incorporated into the dough early. Then, I let the appliance do all the hard work, kneading and rising.
Once the dough began rising, I went to work on the butternut squash. Mine was fairly small, but despite hearing that this particular veggie can be a beast to prep, I didn’t have any problems. After getting my slices for the pizza ready for roasting, I cut the extra squash into smaller strips for butternut squash fries on another night. In retrospect, I might double up the amount of squash on the pizza, however.
While the squash was roasting, I made the pesto. I’m looking forward to growing my own basil plant again this year, but for now I had to rely on Whole Foods for 4 ounces of the herb. 
The pesto only took minutes to make, thanks to my faithful food processor. They better keep making this appliance despite the fact many people don’t use it anymore, because I find mine to be indispensable in the kitchen for many tasks. I made my pesto with extra garlic, as I do with most recipes, and it was fantastic. The pizza recipe only uses half of the pesto recipe, so I saved the rest for use on bread or a simple pasta. Love the bright green color.
Once all the parts were prepped, I was ready to put the pizza together. I rolled out the dough into more of a rectangular shape, since that fits better on my baking pans. After that, I pretty much followed the recipe, though I probably dropped a little extra pesto on the pizza. I found that mine didn’t really need to cook as long as they said—more like 14 minutes than 20—so I may have rolled the dough out a bit too thin. But the end result was gorgeous. I love the mixture of bright colors on this very attractive pizza. And the taste was just as good. The sweetness of the butternut squash was a nice complement to the tangy pesto and the mellow gouda. I’ll definitely be making this recipe again, though I may substitute my usual flatbread dough from this recipe, which is a little more delicate and tasty than this pizza dough.
For dessert, we had carrot cake made from the fresh carrots from our first farm share box. I recently discovered after a trip down to Carolina that John shares my love for carrot cake, and I happened to see this recipe in the current issue of Cooking Light as I was flipping through it. A redo of this classic recipe that reduces the calories by more than 1,000 calories and has 10% of the fat? Plus, it has pecans? I had to try it.
Apart from grating the carrots by hand, which was a real workout for my arms, this recipe was a breeze. The resulting dessert was both tantalizing—John was badgering me to finish my photo shoot so he could dig in—and as delicious as it looks. I highly recommend this recipe, and will definitely add it to my repertoire.
