Cook once, eat twice! You can get two meals out of this recipe: Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Flatbread and Butternut Squash Penne.
Beautiful Food
I'm pretty excited about this post. It features some of my favorite ingredients: butternut squash, caramelized onions, and sage. And it's perfect for fall! But best of all, it's a collaboration with an amazing food photographer, Rikki Snyder. Oh, and it has a concept too! A concept!
After emailing back and forth for a while, Rikki and I decided to work together on a few posts. I've always felt that my strength as a food blogger is recipe development; while I love taking pictures, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a struggle at times. And since Rikki takes gorgeous photos, it seemed like a fun idea for me to develop some recipes and for Rikki to photograph them.
The common denominator in the recipes? Butternut squash! (And caramelized onions too.) Fall is typically a busy time. The lazy, relaxed days of summer are over. Now the kids are back in school, days are shorter, and easy meals are much-needed. Well, here are two meal ideas to make life a little bit less hectic—at least around dinnertime.
About the Recipe
Both the pasta and the flatbread start with roasted butternut squash and caramelized onions. You can make these over the weekend or the night before. You'll use half of them in each recipe. While the roasted squash and caramelized onions take a little bit of time to make, they're fairly hands-off recipes. With both of those prepared in advance, the pasta and flatbread are each done in 20 minutes or less.
The best thing about these two meals is that not only are they easy, but they're delicious. Because even though fall is a busy time, rushed meals don't always have to come out of a box or a can—with a little bit of planning, you can have a quick homemade meal like this rustic butternut squash flatbread. And trust me, having eaten many meals from a box in my day, this flatbread is way better.
Ingredients
Roasted Butternut Squash
- 1 extra large butternut squash cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt + pepper to taste
Caramelized Onions
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 large onions halved & thinly sliced
- salt + pepper to taste
Flatbread
- 1 prepared pizza crust
- ½ Caramelized Onions above
- ½ cup Fontina or Italian blend cheese shredded
- ½ Roasted Butternut Squash above
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp sage leaves cut into ribbons
- 2 tbsp toasted walnuts chopped (optional)
Instructions
Roasted Butternut Squash
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Divide squash onto 2 rimmed baking sheets; drizzle each sheet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
- Bake for 45–50 minutes or until tender.
- Reserve half for penne recipe.
Caramelized Onions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over low heat.
- Add onions and a pinch of salt. Cook until completely caramelized, stirring occasionally at first and more often as onions begin to brown. Depending on your stove, this could take anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour.
- Season with freshly ground pepper.
- Reserve half for penne recipe.
Flatbread
- Preheat oven to temperature indicated on pizza crust package.
- Top crust with caramelized onions, cheese, and squash.
- Bake for time on package or until squash is heated through and cheese has melted.
- While pizza is baking, heat oil in small skillet over medium high heat. Add sage leaves and saute, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes or until leaves are crispy, but still green.
- Sprinkle sage leaves and walnuts on pizza before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 24 September 2012.
Sharon | Chinese Soup Pot says
Hi Kiersten, this flatbread pizza looks so appetizing, and the photos are beautiful. This is a great collaboration between you and Rikki! I have to say though that the photos on your other posts are not bad at all - they are in fact quite good! =)
Kiersten says
Thank you. 🙂 I've worked really hard to get better with my photography, but I'm still learning so it can be a struggle--sometimes things just aren't right with a photo and I don't know how to fix it!
Brenda Williams says
Really good recipe and the photos are great! Loved this post.
Katie (The Muffin Myth) says
Gorgeous photos! And what a fun collaboration! I love the flavours of butternut squash and sage together, but I'm not sure I've ever thought to put them together on a flatbread before. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Kiersten says
I will put anything on a flatbread or pizza. Anything! 🙂
Meg says
First thing I have to say is YUM! I saw this post yesterday and literally started drooling...the food, the styling, the photography. I am not an OMG kind of girl but when your post came through it was totally an OMG moment. I am going to have to make this over the weekend!
Kiersten says
Thank you! I was so excited about Rikki's photos too--I wish she could photograph all of my recipes. 😀
Jennifer says
oh wow, this looks absolutely amazing. as always, your pictures are truly perfection
Kathy - Panini Happy says
What a fabulous collaboration! So excited that it's butternut squash time again. 🙂
Julia says
What a wonderful recipe for a Fall season. I love the colors of this dish!
Richa says
oh my., i need to find a photographer to do this with me.. how gorgeous are these pictures, the composition, the colors! i am in love. as if the caramelized onions and butternut squash werent enough.. i am double in love!
Kiersten says
Richa, I love your photos!
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
Ooooh this looks so yummy! And I love the colors too, such beautiful fall colors 🙂
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen says
A fast, easy dinner, now that's my language, and the photos are just beautiful Rikki!
Courtney Rae Jones says
Oh yum! This looks amazing. Caramelized onions and butternut squash sound brilliant as pizza toppings! I'm going to make this pizza this weekend. Love that you added walnuts too!
Kiersten says
I hope you like it! 😀 I was going to drizzle walnut oil on the top, but ended up doing walnuts instead at the last minute. 🙂
megan says
I am totally making this tonight! Any suggestions of good pizza crusts to use? Do you use one of that premade or make your own dough?
Kiersten says
I hope you enjoy it! 🙂 I like using the whole-wheat crust from Rustic Crust.
Christine says
Greetings! I just discovered your blog recently and absolutely love it! Thank you for always giving me a little something to read while I am on break at work. These recipes looked so amazing online that I stopped at the store on the way home and bought the ingredients. I made the pasta last night and plan on making the flatbread tonight. The pasta was so amazingly delicious! I like butternut squash and kale and never thought of putting the flavors together; honestly I couldnt' stop eating it! Looking foward to dinner tonight 🙂
Kiersten says
Aw, thank you! 😀 I'm so glad you liked the pasta--I hope the flatbread was just as good!
Rachel @ Rachel's Giveaways says
I made the penne pasta last night for dinner and it was fabulous! Unfortunately, I realized it is still waaaay too hot to be roasting vegetables here in FL. We have fall vegetables in the stores and pumpkin spice lattes etc but the weather still doesn't FEEL like fall yet 🙁
Kiersten says
Yay, I'm glad you liked it! It is finally starting to feel like fall here, although I suppose temperatures in the 70s aren't exactly fall-like either. But it's not in the 80s anymore! 🙂
kellypea says
Love these flavors in pasta -- need to try them with flatbread now. So gorgeous and delicious!
Shirley says
Oh my gosh, I love all those ingredients, especially together! I am so making this.
Photos are beautiful too. And I could never tell the photography was a struggle for you -- yours are always sharp and in focus, well and evenly lit, and well composed. Wish mine would come out so perfect every time!
Kiersten says
I guess my issue is that I'm uncomfortable with the learning process. I used to always think that I loved learning, but I've realized that what I really love is knowing. I don't like the process of getting there. And that's where I am with photography right now.
Russell van Kraayenburg says
My oh my this looks wonderful! What a great recipe. And such lovely photos from Rikki - what a fun collaboration.
Jess says
This looks so gorgeous. Can't believe I'm just stumbling upon this blog now. I put together a meal planning newsletter every week and would love to feature some of your recipes - our subscribers are all looking to eat less animal product.
Kiersten says
I got your email and I will reply to it this afternoon! 🙂
Rehana says
Hi Kiersten! My first time visiting your blog! I must say, that flatbread pizza looks VERY appetizing! Believe it or not, i have NEVER had Butternut Squash or Kale before! I'm guessing from all the posts that these are fall veggies! Any suggestions on replacing the crust?? I'm trying to go "grain free" for some time and would love to have something like this but without the grains.
hope you can help! :o)
Kiersten says
Yup, butternut squash and kale are both fall veggies, although you can buy both year-round too. 🙂 Have you tried making a cauliflower pizza crust before? I think that would work really well with the flavors in this recipe. If you haven't made it yet, here's a link that will show you how:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2012/07/recipe-for-cauliflower-crust-vegetarian.html
If you make it this way, let me know how it turns out!
lynn @ the actor's diet says
LOVE butternut squash on pizza - will have to try this!
Monique says
I made this tonight on a garlic Naan. It was fantastic! I'm a newbie vegetarian and I'm having a blast experimenting with different flavors. I will surely follow your blog and make this again! Thanks for sharing!
Kiersten says
Yay, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Experimenting is definitely the best thing you can do as a new vegetarian. 🙂
Shelbi says
Loved this, came out great! I also loved how beautiful it looked!
Kiersten says
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! 😀
Michelle Ritchie | Delicious Karma says
WOW...so delicious sounding! MUST make this ne as well...as I love butternut squash and caramelized onions!!!! Added this one to our "Flatbread & Pizza" Pinterest board as well...as I want to keep this one to make for sure. Perhaps this weekend!
Kiersten says
Thanks for the pin! 🙂
Michelle Ritchie | Delicious Karma says
My pleasure! LOVE your stuff!
Arthur in the Garden! says
Yum!
jennifer says
I'm a little late to this post, but if I bought raw dough from a bakery, do I need to bake that first? Then follow your instructions?