Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza

This zucchini pizza is the ultimate summer dinner! Quick & easy to make, it's packed with flavor from raw and roasted zucchini, pesto, and herbs.

Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza sliced

Last week, I wrote all about our beautiful, flourishing herb garden. Over the next 2 days, it poured down rain, our big basil plant got overwatered, and now it’s sort of falling over on itself. It’s a good thing we planted two! It’s also a good thing that we’re not farmers because we can barely keep a few deck plants alive 🙂

Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza recipe ingredients

We went to the farmers market last to get produce from ACTUAL farmers on Saturday, and I brought home these cute mini zucchini and tiny pattypan squashes. It inspired me to make a big green zucchini pizza to go along with our surviving herbs from basil plant #2 and lots of fragrant fresh thyme.

How to make Zucchini Pizza

My Zucchini Pizza Secret (Zucchini 2 Ways)!

This zucchini pizza recipe isn’t complicated to make, but I prepared the squash two ways, which creates a unique mix of flavors and textures on this otherwise very simple pesto pizza. First, I roasted the pattypan squash in the oven on top of the crust and the cheese. Then I peeled the mini zucchini with a vegetable peeler and marinated the thin strips in a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.

Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza close up

The raw marinated zucchini goes on top of the cooked pizza along with lots of fresh basil, fresh thyme, generous scoops of pesto, and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. It’s a fun one to make and assemble because it’s so green and pretty! It’s delicious too – serve it with extra pesto on the side for scooping!

Sliced Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza

If you love this zucchini pizza recipe…

Try this white pizza with broccoli & corn or this blackberry basil pizza next, and see this post for my best homemade pizza tips!


5.0 from 4 reviews

Herb Garden Zucchini Pizza

 
This summer zucchini pizza features zucchini two ways: roasted and raw! We love its range of textures and fresh flavor from summer herbs.
Author:
Serves: 3 to 4
Ingredients
  • 1 pound fresh pizza dough*
  • 4 tiny pattypan squash, or 2 medium, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling and brushing
  • ½ garlic clove, minced
  • 1 (8-ounce) ball fresh mozzarella, not packed in water
  • 8 tiny zucchini peeled into strips, or 1 medium sliced into paper-thin coins
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • Leaves of 4 sprigs fresh thyme, divided
  • â…“ cup fresh pesto (recipe below)
  • ½ cup fresh basil
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  2. Stretch the pizza dough onto a 14-inch pizza pan and par-bake the crust for 3 minutes.
  3. In a small bowl, toss the pattypan squash with a drizzle of olive oil, the minced garlic, and pinches of salt and pepper.
  4. Remove the dough from the oven, brush with some olive oil and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt. Spread torn pieces of mozzarella and the pattypan squash pieces evenly around the crust. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges of the crust are golden brown.
  5. Meanwhile (re-using the same bowl from above) toss the zucchini strips with a drizzle of olive oil, the lemon juice, leaves from 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and pinches of salt and pepper. Set aside to marinate.
  6. Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the remaining fresh thyme, the marinated raw zucchini, dollops of fresh pesto, and the basil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Serve with extra pesto on the side.
Notes
*Note: If I'm not using homemade dough, I like the multi-grain dough from Whole Foods.

Pesto
½ cup pepitas
1 small garlic clove
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups fresh basil
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a small food processor, combine the pepitas, garlic, salt, and pepper and pulse until combined. Add the lemon juice and basil and pulse again. With the blade running, drizzle in the olive oil.

 

9 comments

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Rate this recipe (after making it):  

  1. Kris
    09.27.2020

    Where has this pizza been my whole life?? It’s my new favorite! I made a couple alterations to the recipe- mushrooms for squash because I didn’t have the squash but had these huge portobellos that needed to be eaten ASAP. Also added small dollops of ricotta all over after the pie was out of the oven. So DELICIOUS. Oh – and I took a little shortcut and didn’t make the pesto… but if in the NY area or have a Whole Foods nearby and can get your hands on Gotham Greens pesto – it is absolutely amazing. You’d never know it was pre-made. I can’t wait to make this again! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!

  2. Haley
    04.11.2019

    Zucchini is good on anything.

  3. Gaby Dalkin
    08.11.2018

    OMG, I need a slice of this ASAP!

  4. Brittany Audra @ Audra's Appetite
    08.10.2018

    This pizza is beautiful with all those zucchini ribbons! 🙂

  5. Gil
    08.10.2018

    I used cauliflower ‘dough’ and it came out almost perfect[although everyone ‘loved it’]. It’s a little tricky baking this veggie dough and coordinate with whatever you throw at it. I took your recipe as a base. Added sliced grilled Portobello and sauteed broccolini heads. Skipped the oregano. Practice will yield the perfect score.

  6. Leila
    08.10.2018

    Jeanine: Do you purchase the 1 lb. pizza dough fresh from the pizza dept. at WF or is it found in the freezer section? Thanks!

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      08.10.2018

      Hi Leila, it’s not frozen, it’s refrigerated in the prepared food area. Sometimes it’s not in the same area in every store, if you don’t see it just ask! (If there’s a fresh pizza area, I usually ask those guys) Hope that helps! Others have told me that they enjoy Trader Joe’s pizza dough but I haven’t tried it yet.

  7. Mary
    08.10.2018

    This looks divine! Will be making this for sure!

  8. Emma Warner
    08.10.2018

    Pizza is my all time favorite. When I go out with friends we always love to eat pizza.
    This is something new for me. As I’m a pizza lover so definitely I will try this at home.

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.