This beautiful summer pizza is topped with fresh squash blossoms or zucchini flowers! 
How to make a squash blossom pizza with zucchini flowers.
Have you noticed those beautiful squash blossoms or zucchini flowers at the farmers market but didn’t know what to do with them? A couple of my favorite ways to eat them are, no surprise, Italian. Squash blossoms are wonderful stuffed with ricotta cheese and fried. 
 
Squash blossoms are also fantastic on pizza! The flowers cook just enough and are so beautiful. 
 

 
Homemade pizza on a wooden pizza peel topped with squash blossoms and fresh mozzarella cheese.  
Wow, we had the best weekend! We stayed away from most of the Fiesta madness I mentioned last week, but had so many other great things going on. Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary, and I think it was our best anniversary yet! I really  do have the best husband in the world (sorry ladies) and we had dinner at one of our favorite and most romantic spots in Santa Barbara, the San Ysidro Ranch’s Stonehouse restaurant.
 
It’s a high end hotel, but worth it if you can ever manage to stay in one of the Ranch’s charming cottages or eat in one of the two restaurants.

The beautiful Stonehouse restaurant at San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California.
Sunday the fun continued when my girlfriends and I threw one of our best friends a Parisian themed baby shower. Pictures and details to come soon. 
 
Last week noticed these gorgeous baby zucchini with flowers still attached. Immediately my mind went to Pizzeria Mozza, one of Mario Batali’s popular pizza restaurants in LA. Mozza is famous for their Squash Blossom Pizza. I had used fried squash blossoms before, but never used them on a pizza.
 

Baby zucchini with squash blossoms attached.

Our family loved the result and our almost 4 year old thought eating flowers atop pizza was like eating fairy food.

What are Squash Blossoms

A bowl of fresh squash blossoms.
If you’ve every grown squash you know exactly what squash blossoms are. They are the flowers at the end of the baby squash. There are male and female squash flowers and insects fertilize the fruit so that the squash can mature. Otherwise it just falls off and dies. 
 
The squash blossoms we find most commonly found in the markets are zucchini flowers in the summer. This bowl of squash blossoms was from my garden zucchini. 
 

How to Make Squash Blossom Pizza

I grew up thinking pizza had to have lots of cheese. After spending months in Italy, and trying some great pizza in the US too, I now realize great pizza doesn’t need to have any cheese at all. As you can see from the images in this post, I used some cheese as a base over the sauce. I now recommend cooking the pizza dough, sauce, and squash blossoms without any cheese. Then, add a dollop of really good quality burrata, vegan ricotta, or Mozzarella. To add more flavor, a pinch of sea salt, a drizzle of olive oil, or even a dollop of pesto

What to Serve with Squash Blossom Pizza

 
Yield: 4 individual pizzas

Squash Blossom Pizza

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Additional Time 5 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

This beautiful summer pizza features fresh squash blossoms! This pizza recipe is naturally vegetarian and easy to make vegan.

Squash Blossom Pizza

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place a pizza stone on a rack in lower third of oven. Heat oven to 500˚ for 1 hour.
  2. Transfer 1 dough ball to a floured piece parchment paper. Working from center, gently flatten dough with fingertips, leaving edges thicker than middle.
  3. Spread a layer of pizza sauce over dough, leaving a 1" border. Arrange squash blossoms over sauce in concentric circles. Transfer pizza (on paper) to stone and bake until golden brown, 10–14 minutes.
  4. Remove pizza with a spatula. Top with spoonfuls of burrata and drizzle with olive oil. Repeat to make 4 pizzas.

Notes

You can find squash blossoms, or zucchini flowers, at the farmers market during the summer and in some grocery stores.

To make this pizza vegan, I like to use dollops of homemade or Kite Hill ricotta.

For extra flavor, a pinch of sea salt, or even a dollop of pesto is delicious.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 4
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 347Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 50mgSodium: 649mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 6gSugar: 14gProtein: 21g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Nutritionix. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your favorite calculator.