Summer Thin Crust Tomato Zucchini Pizza + Rainbow Salsa

 

Hello, hello everyone! I am so excited to be bringing you a BONUS BLOG this week. As the sun has slowly been peeking out from the June gloom and the high temperatures have been in the 70s, I’ve been more inspired to go outside and enjoy all that OTO has to offer, including Orange Home Grown Farmer’s and Artisan’s Market. This past Saturday, it was a perfect 70 degrees and I decided to take a trip down to see what was in store…. or should I say… in market!

Normally I visit Orange Home Grown with specific recipes or an ingredient list in mind. However this week, I stopped by hoping I would find inspiration from the market itself. It’s so easy to create a recipe in your head once you start strolling the many tents of delicious produce, which is all grown right here in our backyard in Southern California.

I remembered that tomatoes are extremely ripe and in season during the summer months in SoCal, and found them at almost each vegetable tent I visited at the market. Then, I started thinking of my favorite ingredients with tomatoes…. pasta sauce, salsa, pizza. Everything sounded so delicious. I grabbed a box of rainbow cherry tomatoes AND three better boy tomatoes and knew exactly what I would be making: a tomato and zucchini thin crust pizza AND a rainbow salsa. Here we go!

Kale, lime, avocado, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, better boy tomatoes, purple onion, cilantro jalapeño hummus (all can be found at Orange Home Grown)

To make the salsa, I squeezed the juice of half a lime into a bowl. I then added half a purple onion and the rainbow cherry tomatoes diced into quarters. Easy as cake!

Of course, you have to add garlic salt and pepper to taste!

And then, you can add cilantro and jalapeño for heat and added flavor, if that’s your style! This salsa turned out perfectly and was a good side for the main dish. Welcoming these colorful tomatoes to your dishes this summer will be the perfect way to add zest, acidity, and color to your food.

Rainbow cherry tomato salsa!

For the pizza, I wanted to do something unconventional for the sauce. If you’ve been to Orange Home Grown, you are sure to have visited or seen “The Hummus Guy” as locals refer to him. Mom’s Speciality Foods brings the Mediterranean to Orange and has the most deliciously fresh hummus around. I decided to use their cilantro jalapeño hummus as my pizza sauce. This kept the dish fresh, creamy, and oh, so good.

For toppings, I went with slices of tomato and zucchini and fresh kale. Of course, suggested toppings include:

  • Your favorite cheese!
  • Bell peppers
  • Pepperoni or sausage
  • Artichokes
  • Spinach

For baking, follow the instructions from your favorite homemade or store-bought pizza dough. For my recipe, pizza dough was the only thing I couldn’t find at the farmer’s market (unsurprisingly) and bought a thin crust dough from the store for my pie. I would suggest a thin crust dough for this pie, as you want to keep it light for summer!

The pie came out looking so delicious, I could hardly wait to dig in. But of course, I couldn’t just let my leftover tomatoes sit on the counter. I decided to very quickly food process them and boil them with salt, garlic, and a quarter of the purple onion to make a super simple marinara sauce and perfect pizza crust dipper!

I would highly recommend buying or making a quick marinara sauce to add moisture to your pie and keep the dish zingier than ever.

Overall, I absolutely loved creating this original dish in the kitchen this past weekend. The recipe yielded one large pie or two smaller pies. It was perfect and light for summer, while still keeping me full all afternoon. I love supporting our local farmers in Old Towne Orange and hope you get to visit the farmers market very soon!

Thank you all so much for reading! The FULL recipe will be featured in our upcoming Farm To Table OTO menu (coming SOON) so be on the lookout for that! Have a great week everyone.

 

Last Updated on February 6, 2020 by