Roast vegetable deep dish pizza

Serves: 6
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 40 mins
Ingredients
  • ½ butternut squash or 1 sweet potato, cubed
  • 2 red onions, cut into quarters with base intact
  • 1 roll ready-made pizza dough
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½tsp sugar
  • Salt and black pepper
  • A handful of baby spinach leaves
  • 1tsp oregano or basil
  • 100g cheddar grated
  • 1 ball mozzarella, torn
  • Olive oil

1 Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the vegetables on a tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast till they are just tender and beginning to caramelise at the edges. Set aside and increase oven temperature to 220 degrees.

2 Saute the onion in a pan with a little olive oil. Once soft add the garlic and stir for a minute before adding the chopped tomato and sugar. Simmer for five minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Add the herbs and blitz using a stick blender until smooth. Set aside.

3 Brush a 12in springform tin with olive oil. Unroll the pizza and gently lay it into the dish, pressing it up against the sides as you do. Scatter the base of the dough with grated cheese, top with a little tomato sauce, the roasted veg and spinach and then more sauce. Finish with a layer of cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden and the cheese bubbling on top.

4 Leave to sit for a minute before unclipping the sides and serving. I like to cut this pie with a metal dough scraper, but a pizza wheel or knife will do too.

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a food writer