Jenny’s Broccolini Chickpea Pizza

These mini pizzas don’t skimp on flavor. They’re loaded with lemon zest, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a hint of garlic powder.

vegetarian / dinner / cookbooks

It’s fall, which really means 2 things. It’s not only pumpkin season, but it’s also cookbook season! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing recipes from some of my favorite new cookbooks. Today’s recipe comes from How to Celebrate Everything, by Jenny Rosenstrach of Dinner a Love Story. I’ve been reading her blog for years and I had the pleasure of meeting her (and having a total fan-girl moment) a few months ago.

I have to say – I love this book because it’s one of those cookbooks that you want to snuggle up with and read from cover to cover. For starters, I just love her writing. Reading this book is like having coffee with a good friend. Jenny talks all about how she creates family food rituals not just for the big holidays (although there are recipes for those too) but for the smaller life events that are no less important. Events like a weekend walk to the farmers market that ends with tomato sandwiches, an end-of-the-school-year celebration with a neighborly “bus stop social”, birthday breakfasts, pizza Fridays, etc, etc, etc.

Reading her book inspired me to create some new rituals of my own because I realized how many rituals I actually don’t have… that is unless you count Jack’s birthday carrot cake, the butternut squash soup I make on the first day of fall, or the wine I drink to celebrate 5pm. But, hey, I guess those DO count, but there’s always room for more!

Now on to the recipe! In the book this is an apres ski meal. Since we don’t have mountains (or snow) in Texas, I just decided that broccolini + chickpeas + pizza (with lots of lemon zest) sounded like a delicious way to celebrate Monday.

I took a big shortcut and baked my pizzas onto pre-made mini naan breads – see her recipe below to make a big rectangular pizza using real dough 🙂

Next on my list – these popovers! How good do they look?

Click here to get the book! We’re also giving away a copy – to enter, leave a comment below telling me about one of your favorite family food rituals. The giveaway will close this Friday. Open to U.S. residents only.

4.8 from 4 reviews

Jenny’s Broccolini Chickpea Pizza

  PrintRecipe from How to Celebrate Everything by Jenny Rosenstrach. Re-printed with permission.Author: Jeanine DonofrioRecipe type: Main dishServes: 4Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons good-quality olive oil, plus more for brushing
• 1 16-ounce ball store-bought pizza dough, preferably sitting out at room temerature for about 15 minutes to warm up a bit and rise.
• 1 8-ounce ball fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• 1 large bunch of broccolini (about 8 ounces), roughly chopped (including stems and leaves)
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, grease a 17×12 inch rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Drop the pizza dough into the center of the baking sheet and, using your fingers, press out and flatten the dough so it spreads as close as possible to all four corners. Cover the dough with the mozzarella slices, leaving a ½ inch border around the perimeter.
2. In a large bowl, toss the broccolini, chickpeas, lemon zest, and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper to taste and drizzle in the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, then give it all another toss.
3. Using your hands, add the broccoli-chickpea mixture on top of the mozzarella in an even layer. Shower with the grated Parm and brush the exposed edge of the crust with a little oil.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, until the crust looks golden and the broccolini looks crispy and dark brown, but not black-burnt. (You can always cover the toppings with foil if the broccolini looks ready before the crust is.) Remove the pizza to a cutting board to cool. Slice into eight rectangular pieces and serve.

NotesHer recipe calls for salami or bacon, but I used about ¼ cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes instead. I also used grated mozzarella instead of fresh because it’s what I happened to have on hand.3.4.3177
 

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1. Amari
   01.07.2022

   Confused about when/how much salami/bacon/sundries tomatoes gets added?

   Reply ↓

   • Jeanine Donofrio
     01.08.2022

     Hi Amari, so sorry – they go into the bowl with the broccoli and everything in step 2.

     Reply ↓

2. stanp from EnamelCookware%20Plus.com
   05.11.2017

   Have to watch my carbs so any sugestions for a substitute for the pizza dough ?…can you get wheat ?

   Other than that..love all the ingredients !

   Reply ↓

3. Kit White
   10.04.2016

   We love various pizzas. I usually make them on Naan bread from TraderJoe’s freezer. These are the perfect size for the two of us to each have one pizza with whatever I like from the fridge that night. I’ll love to add your recipe to my list. One question, though, in the recipe you say to spread the dough over the pan but your pictures show cute little individual rounds of pizza. Obviously, I could do either but wondered about the inconsistency between the written part and the pictures.

   Reply ↓

   • Jeanine Donofrio
     10.04.2016

     Hi Kit, sorry for the confusion. I typed Jenny’s recipe as it was written in the book (which uses raw pizza dough) and mentioned above that I made a shortcut using pre-made mini naan. I’ll make that more clear in the recipe though!

     Reply ↓

     • Kit White
       10.04.2016

       So sorry that I missed that paragraph. I do like naan for pizza bottoms. Thanks.

       Reply ↓

4. Cathi
   10.02.2016

   We have recently started taco Tuesday nights at our house. Being a mom of two little ones, it’s hard to plan a weekly menu that everyone will approve of, but this is working for us. Each week is different; one week we’ll have chicken, then fish, then pork. And of course margaritas to go with!

   Reply ↓

5. Katy Hope from hopepostkids.com
   09.30.2016

   This looks amazing. Tuesday night is pizza night at our house. Its perfect with kids, everyone gets to choose their own toppings. The kids are easy, the almost always do plain cheese (obviously) but I have been totally burning out on ideas to keep pizza interesting for the adults. Looking forward to trying this one. http://www.hopepostkids.com

   Reply ↓

6. Shoshana Rose
   09.29.2016

   My absolute favorite food ritual is having my mother’s pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. It’s my great grandmother’s recipe and I look forward to it every year!

   Reply ↓