Can I use store-bought pizza dough?

Yes. 2 rolls of pizza dough from the chilled section save the hour of rising, and the pizza is on the table in 45 minutes. Let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before topping, otherwise it tears. The homemade dough turns crispier and throws those lovely blisters at the edge, but on a weeknight I sometimes reach for the roll myself.

Which pumpkin works on the pizza?

Butternut or Hokkaido. Butternut is sweet and turns lovely and soft in the oven, Hokkaido does not need peeling and stays a little firmer. Either way I cut cubes of around 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) and roast them first, raw pumpkin would not cook through in the 8 minutes of baking.

How do I caramelize the onions properly?

With low heat and patience. Soften the onion slices in olive oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, only then add the sugar and stir for another 5 minutes until golden brown. Finish by deglazing with balsamic and letting it cook down until the onions shine. Heat that is too high makes them bitter instead of sweet.

Can I make the pumpkin pizza vegan?

Yes. Use vegan pizza cheese or leave the grated cheese out, replace the ricotta with dollops of cashew or almond cream cheese and check that the pesto has no Parmesan. Pumpkin, onions, tomato sauce and arugula are vegan anyway, and so is the dough.

How does the pizza base get crisp in a normal home oven?

Full heat, top and bottom heat instead of fan, and a hot surface. Preheat the oven to 250 C (480 F) for at least 30 minutes, ideally with a pizza stone or an upturned baking tray on the lowest shelf. The pizza slides straight onto it from the floured peel. Top it thinly, too much sauce and topping make the base soft.

27 AUGUST 2026

Pumpkin Pizza with Ricotta and Caramelized Onions

Name: Pumpkin Pizza with Ricotta and Caramelized Onions
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 2 pizzas (4 servings)
Ingredients: 400 gr (14 oz.) wheat flour; 1 sachet dry yeast; 250 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water; 1 tsp salt; 1 pinch sugar; 2 Tbsp olive oil; 1/2 pumpkin; 1 Tbsp olive oil; 1/2 tsp paprika powder; 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme; salt and pepper; 2 small onions; 1 Tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp sugar; 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar; 4 Tbsp tomato sauce; 4-5 Tbsp grated cheese; 2-3 Tbsp ricotta; 2-3 Tbsp pesto; 1 handful fresh arugula; fresh thyme, salt and pepper

By Verena Frei

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Prep: 30 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 1 hr 35 min
Servings: 2 pizzas (4 servings)

Hello lovelies,

Friday is pizza day in our house, and as soon as the first pumpkins arrive, one of them ends up on the dough. My pumpkin pizza with ricotta and caramelized onions is the version that gets requested most: roasted pumpkin cubes, onions caramelized in balsamic, small dollops of ricotta and pesto on a thin tomato sauce, and a handful of arugula on top after baking. Sweet, savory, creamy and fresh on one slice, exactly how I like pizza in autumn.

Close-up of the pumpkin pizza with roasted pumpkin cubes, balsamic onions, ricotta, pesto and arugula

Pumpkin on pizza is not new on this blog. My vegan pumpkin pizza with butternut and rosemary has lived here for years, with raw pumpkin sticks on sour cream and a spelt base that rises for hours. This one is its ricotta sister: the pumpkin is roasted first, the base is tomato, and the dough is a simple yeast dough that is ready in an hour.

The dough is deliberately simple, 400 gr (14 oz.) of flour, a sachet of dry yeast, water, salt, olive oil, 10 minutes of kneading and an hour of rising. If you have no yeast in the house or no time, you may already know my spinach tarte flambee with creme fraiche, whose dough works entirely without yeast and rests for 30 minutes. Both bases need a properly hot oven though, that is the whole trick.

Pumpkin pizza with ricotta at an angle from above, with arugula, pesto and a browned crust

The onions deserve the 15 minutes of attention they ask for. Soften them over medium heat, then a teaspoon of sugar, then a tablespoon of balsamic, and they turn dark, glossy and sweet. Together with the pumpkin and the ricotta that is the combination I also love in my pumpkin ravioli with sage butter: sweet pumpkin against something salty and creamy.

Edge of the pumpkin pizza with blisters, pumpkin cubes and pesto in close-up

As a side a green salad is enough for us, or, when guests are over, a big bowl of pumpkin quinoa salad with chickpeas and dates, because then the half pumpkin left over from the topping has a job straight away.

Pumpkin pizza with ricotta from above on the wooden peel

Ingredients for the pumpkin pizza with dough ball, butternut, pesto, ricotta, tomato sauce, red onions and arugula

I hope this pizza makes it into your Friday rotation too. And if the oven is to come on again the next day, my vegan pumpkin lasagne with spinach is the next autumn dish that cooks from the same crate of pumpkins.

Yours, Verena

TIPS

Verena's notes

Tip from my kitchen: the oven cannot be too hot, and the surface has to heat up with it, otherwise the base stays pale. Top the pizza thinly, the pumpkin cubes and the onions already bring plenty, and the ricotta goes on in small dollops rather than spread out, so it stays creamy in the oven. The arugula only goes on after baking, otherwise it turns bitter and limp. You can prepare the pumpkin and onions the day before, then the pizza is in the oven within 20 minutes in the evening. And the dough also rises overnight in the fridge, which even makes it more aromatic.