Roasted Pumpkin, Mushroom & Fennel Pizza with Mint
I adore mint. Fresh, invigorating and feminine, it consists of a fiery but gently flavour that is quickly distinguishable.
Health wise, mint is widely attributed to aiding with digestion, headaches, migraines, nausea, and the common cold and flu. I dig the whole ‘let food be thy medicine’ Hippocrates thing, so regularly eating mint isn’t solely for pleasure but a choice I make for my wellbeing, too.
Lovely in drinks and welcome in salads, its not quite often used in anything else, is it? Possibly this is because mint does not make it easy to pass off a mistake — unlike something rather placid, such as parsley (I throw parsley in to just about everything. Are you the same?).
I love adding mint to rice paper rolls and, recently, Rémi and I have enjoyed Moroccan mint tea as a non-alcoholic complement to our lazy evenings. I also throw mint in to fruity salads, and sometimes I sprinkle it on potatoes prior to roasting.
Something new, for me, anyway, is this: roasted pumpkin, mushroom and fennel — an atypical pizza blend but common enough — with a touch of mint. On the whole, mint’s final affect is rather mild, so don’t worry about your pizza becoming overtly minty! You can find the recipe below.
I want to grow my mint repertoire, so, do tell: how do you use mint in your cooking?
Ingredients
Pizza Base
I have been using this basic recipe while I work on mastering my own sourdough version.
Toppings
- brown onions, sliced finely
- butternut pumpkin, cubed 1.5–2cm
- fennel, sliced super thin
- mushrooms, sliced thin
- garlic, diced finely
- olive oil
- cheese! In the photos I used roquefort as that’s all I had on hand, but I think goat cheese would work even better.
- fresh parsley, chopped
- fresh mint leaves, some chopped and some left whole
- salt and pepper, to taste
Method
Make the dough, and set it aside.
Then, in one big tray, drizzle the onion, pumpkin, fennel and mushroom with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and put them on the low shelf of a preheated oven of 180 celsius for 20–25 minutes, or until they are only just beginning to brown (more browning will take place when you put them back in the oven atop the pizza dough).
After rolling out the dough as thinly as you can (the recipe I linked you to is more on the ‘pan fried’ spectrum of the pizza kingdom), brush its surface with olive oil, sprinkle on some garlic, and then throw on the rest of the toppings, finishing with the herbs. Remember that you can make one big pizza or a few smaller ones, like in my pictures.
Place the pizzas on to a lined tray in to the oven on the middle shelf and cook until the cheese is melted and the vegetables look inviting — approximately 10–15 minutes.
Make pretty with fresh mint. You may now serve.