Crave Wednesday: Roasted Beet Pizza

Most normal people don't associate root veggies with summer.  Turnips and carrots usually grace fall tables.  Luckily I never claimed to be "normal people.:  For me, beets are a summer vegetable.  This is true even though preparation for them in this house always involves roasting.  Turning up the oven to an insanely high heat, which is something normal people avoid as the temperatures climb. 

But I brave through.  Because once roasted, the beets provide a sweetness that just seems fitting for summer.  Roasted beets, finely grated and tossed with vinegar serve as an excellent salad for picnics and barbecue.  Roast beets with goat cheese and arugula is the perfect salad to enjoy on a warm evening.   And roasting yellow beets, in thin circles resembling the summer sun, serve as a perfect foil to this light pizza.

No need for heavy sauces, a simple brush of olive oil helps to create a golden crust that needs no tomato to bring out the flavor.  Instead the sweet beets pair with salty feta, which, if cheeses were seasonal, would also belong in summer as it is often paired with mint, or watermelon, or bright tomatoes. A sprinkle of fresh herbs - a summer staple rounds out this pizza.

Roasted Beet Pizza (From Cooking Light)

1 golden beet

1 Tbsp cornmeal

pizza dough

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup vertically sliced shallots

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp honey

1 tsp rosemary leaves

1. Preheat oven to 450.  Leave root and 1 inch of stem on beet.  Scrub with a brush and wrap in foil.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  Trim off root and rub off skin.  Cut in half crosswise and thinly slice halves.
2. Place a pizza stone in the oven and increase temperature to 500.  Sprinkle cornmeal on a baking sheet with raised edges.  
3. Roll dough into 10 inch circle on baking sheet.  Brush oil over dough.
4. Arrange cheese, beet slices, and shallots evenly over dough, leaving a 1/2 inch border.  Slide dough onto preheated pizza stone.  Bake for 8 minutes.
5. Remove from stone and sprinkle with salt and drizzle with honey. 
6. Sprinkle with rosemary.  Cut into 8 wedges.