Spaghetti Squash, Onion, and Cashew Pizza

Who doesn’t like pizza? I guess it is rare to encounter someone who  isn’t into pizza. It’s a very customizable dish, which makes it fun for everybody. Even gluten-free pizza satisfies many, myself included. I like all types of pizza! From salsiccia (sausage) to spinach and goat cheese (my husband’s favorite), there are so many types of pizza to shkoff! I always wondered why Chicago-style fans and New York-style fans butt head over which pizza is better. I think, the more the merrier! Why not enjoy more than one type? The only thing that gets to me with pizza is when it is too greasy. I get a sickening feeling seeing an oil slick, often with the reddish hue, on my slice. One way to circumvent that problem is to make your own pizza!

How about an unusual one? A little while ago, I wanted to make a weird pizza. In the kitchen, it’s not a rare occurrence for me to make something that I think may be unusual. I have a fascination with such things 🙂  So… here is what I thought up:  a Spaghetti Squash, Onion and Cashew Pizza. This is the type of dish that you can just throw together without following a recipe, as are the case with most pizza. So here is a step-by step tutorial of sorts with comments.

First things first, cook a spaghetti squash. Use your favorite way of cooking it, or see my post on Spaghetti Squash Pancit for instructions on generating the squash noodles.

Toppings, part I:  cooked spaghetti squash noodles, sliced onion, cashews (halved-raw or roasted is fine), raw milk cheddar & provolone.

Toppings part II:  chopped anchovies (optional), chopped parsley

Here, I’m using the skillet-broiler method to make the pizza. Preheat your cast-iron skillet medium-high heat while you shape your crust. Use whatever dough recipe you want (I used a partly whole-grain dough). Then, sprinkle some flour/cornmeal/semolina on your skillet to help against sticking. Put the shaped dough onto the skillet, then spread some tomato sauce on the crust, leaving a border for the cornicione. Put the anchovies and then the provolone on top.

Layer on some of the spaghetti squash and then the onions while the bottom of the crust is cooking.

Then goes the raw milk cheddar and the cashews on top. I think that the raw-milk cheddar has some nuttiness to it that complements the cashews. I am a big fan of raw-milk cheddar. It tastes really good!

Let the pizza cook for about 4 minutes or until the bottom is browned. You can put a lid on top to help start the top of the pizza to cook. Preheat your broiler at this point.

I like this amount of brown on bottom crust, but you can make it lighter or darker as you wish.

The skillet and all goes into the oven and broils for a few minutes until the cheese is nicely melted and the crust is to your desired color. It’s faster, easier and funner to make pizza using this skillet-broiler method if you don’t have a wood-burning oven and want similar results. No baking stone needed!

Here it is out of the oven! Garnish with some chopped parsley and maybe a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil. I’m very wary when it comes to adding extra oil given that I don’t like things greasy normally, so I leave it out. But it’s an Italian way to use olive oil as a table condiment it seems, so feel free to do so.

The first pizza turned out tasty,  but I thought that it could use some more spaghetti squash. I also put the cashews on after the cheese started to melt so that it wouldn’t get too dark.  It’s a good idea when testing out pizza ideas to start with less toppings than too much as the latter may result in a soggy pizza or one not evenly cooked.

This one was right on point. I let it cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before cutting into it.

The spaghetti squash helps with the cheesy “stringy” effect that some of us love when eating pizza. I think it is fun to bite in and get the strings of cheese 🙂

Cashews make a nice addition to pizza. It may be a regional thing in the US, but I’m not sure where it originated. Anyone know about cashews on pizza?

I love eating pizza on those flimsy white paper plates. Reminds me of my childhood eating pizza on Fridays in school. Every Friday, you could buy pizza and the whole school was filled with kids eating pizza on white paper plates. Those were fun days.

The pizza Pac-man shot. I like this look 😀

I hope you all are having a great week!

Enjoy!

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