November 10: Zucchini Pizza

   Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

2 pizza dough rolls from a tube, such as Pillsbury brand

   Coarse salt and coarse black pepper

2 cups ricotta cheese

8 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

2 medium to large zucchini

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle EVOO on one large or two small cookie sheets, then roll out the dough. It's already in a rectangular shape; just pat it out a bit. Poke with the tines of a fork, season with salt and pepper, and place in the oven for 5 to 6 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta with the garlic. When you remove the dough, cover it evenly with the ricotta cheese. Top the ricotta with a layer of mozzarella cheese, then return it to the oven on the center rack and cook until golden, 12 to 13 minutes more.

Heat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. Trim the ends off the zucchini. Cut the zucchini into thin strips lengthwise, no more than 1/4 inch thick. Trim a sliver off the skin on one side if you need to make the zucchini more stable while you slice it. Fill the dry skillet with a single layer of the zucchini strips and cook for 5 minutes, turning once. Remove to a cutting board and repeat.

When all of the zucchini is cooked, pile a few slices at a time into stacks. Cut the cooked zucchini across into thin sticks. Pile the sticks together and season with salt and pepper. Scatter the sticks across the pizzas in the last 2 to 3 minutes of cooking time.

Serve large squares of the pizza hot from the oven. Ah, Roma!

4 SERVINGS, 1/2 PIZZA EACH

RR says: "This is a pizza I discovered on a trip to Rome as I wandered the side streets with my mom. It became such a favorite of mine that, on a return trip I made in the cold late fall, I think I ate hot, half-kilo blocks of it every day for a week. This is my at-home version. I love the feeling of giant slices of this hanging from my mouth. It really brings me back to Roman Holidays." I must not have read this recipe very well. It really doesn't even look like I followed the instructions. The store was out of the pizza dough tubes, so I bought the already-baked crusts. They're so much easier, and I didn't have to do the first step of baking them. I just warmed them for a couple minutes. I didn't read the part about cutting the zucchini into slices lengthwise, so I just julienned them. I guess that worked too. The pizza is really pretty good, but I think it could do with some more veggies... like more zucchini or some tomato sauce instead of ricotta. The garlic does make the ricotta taste better, though. Not so bland.