Zucchini Pizzas

Skip the dough entirely. These zucchini rounds act as the crust, each one topped with pizza sauce, chopped black olives, green onions, and a pile of mozzarella that bubbles and browns under the broiler in about five minutes.

Slice the zucchini about a quarter inch thick. Thinner slices get floppy and hard to pick up; thicker ones don’t cook through under the broiler’s direct heat. That quarter-inch sweet spot gives you a base that stays tender-crisp with enough structure to hold the toppings.

A light salt on the raw slices before topping draws out a little surface moisture, which helps the sauce stick and prevents the cheese from sliding off a slippery zucchini round. Don’t oversalt or let them sit too long, though. You want a quick draw, not a puddle.

These work as a snack, an appetizer, or a light low-carb dinner. Kids who won’t touch zucchini any other way tend to demolish these because, well, pizza.

Pro Tips

• Use a large zucchini so the rounds are wide enough to hold toppings. Small zucchini make tiny bites that are fiddly to assemble.
• Watch the broiler carefully. Five minutes is a guideline. Cheese goes from bubbly to blackened fast under a broiler.
• Don’t overload the toppings. A tablespoon of sauce and two tablespoons of cheese per round is plenty. Too much and the slices collapse.

Variations

• Pepperoni zucchini pizzas: Add a mini pepperoni slice on top of the sauce before the cheese.
• Pesto version: Swap pizza sauce for a thin smear of basil pesto and top with shaved Parmesan instead of mozzarella.