Dreamy little pizza bites featuring summer squash and fragrant herbs.
Course Appetizer
Cuisine Mediterranean
Essential Ingredient Zucchini
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour
Servings 4people
Calories 120kcal
Author Aimee
Ingredients
1small zucchini
Maldon or kosher salt
1sheet prepared puff pastry½ a 17-ounce package / 320g package , thawed if frozen
1canpeeled plum tomatoes14-ounce / 400g can, drained, chopped, and drained again
4½ouncesfresh mozzarelladrained and chopped OR grated mozzarella
½cupgrated pecorino cheese
Small bunch of fresh thyme
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a mandoline, slice the zucchini into paper-thin rounds and arrange on a skillet or griddle. Season with a little salt. Cook on medium-high heat until charred and blistered on both sides, 3 minutes total.
On a cool, clean surface, unfold and lay out the puff pastry. Use a round biscuit cutter, about 3 inches (7 to 8cm) in diameter, to cut out the bases for individual pizzette. Arrange the pastry rounds on the baking sheet, allowing plenty of space between them. Use a sharp knife to score a circle inside each pastry round, allowing a 1⁄4-inch margin.
Bake the pizzette bases until lightly golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and use your fingers to squash down the centers of the pastry if they have puffed up; you want to create a hollow. Spoon a heaping teaspoon of tomato into each hollow.
In a medium bowl, combine the mozzarella and pecorino. Spoon a generous scoop of the cheese over the tomato, enough so that the cheese almost completely hides the tomato. Top with a couple slices of grilled zucchini and a few thyme leaves.
Bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese is deliciously melted and golden, and the pastry is crisp on the bottom. The pizzette are best eaten straight from the oven, when buttery and warm, but they will keep in an airtight container for 2 days. Reheat them in the oven before serving.
Notes
Baby artichokes, black olives and anchovies, and blue cheese are all equally scrumptious alternative toppings or leave them plain like a margherita.