This Asparagus and Mushroom Pizza is a healthy alternative to the heavy cheese laden pizza – which is still fabulous from time-to-time. It’s made with cottage cheese, but hear me out – I promise you that you’d never know! It’s creamy and salty with the addition of Pecorino Romano and Mozzarella cheeses, and it scores BIG points on taste.  In comparison to ricotta cheese, cottage cheese has almost half the calories and if you use lowfat cottage cheese, it lowers the fat content. Now, you can dial up the mozzarella in this recipe, but I choose to go easy on it to make this pizza high on taste (but low in calories) for the health and fitness enthusiast in the crowd! Yum, Yum, Yum is the only word that comes to mind.

Let’s talk briefly about the health benefits of asparagus and mushrooms. Fresh asparagus is low in calories only 32 calories per cup! It’s also low in fat and high in vitamins like vitamin K, E – just to name a few. It’s great for digestion too. Mushrooms offer some health benefits too. The ever-popular white button mushrooms are low in calories only 15 calories per cup! They are a good source of Vitamin D and Vitamin B. They are high in antioxidants too. Both veggies (actually mushrooms are a fungi not a plant) are delish and combine some wonderful health benefits to boot! Tossing them on a pizza is easy and healthy!

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Start by pulsating 3/4 of a container of lowfat cottage cheese in a high speed blender for a few minutes. Add in about 1/4 cup of the Pecorino Romano cheese, pulse another minute. Next, add that to a bowl. Add in a small handful of the shredded mozzarella cheese, some ground sea salt and stir well.

Rinse and dry the asparagus and the mushrooms. Cut the ends off the asparagus. Place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and add a drizzle of olive oil and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Once done, set these aside. In the meantime, thinly slice the mushrooms.

For this pizza, I highly recommend using a homemade pizza crust. There is a very good recipe in my cookbook, that took me a few years to develop. That crust will yield one large pizza. You may use a pizza dough bought at your local store or pizza parlor for this pizza as well. Start by placing the dough onto a clean, dry work surface sprinkled with flour.  Press the dough with the palm of your hand to flatten. Then  using your fingertips press from the center of the dough outward. Then use a rolling pin press outward to create a rectangular shape. Place this on a rectangular baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Next, add a drizzle of olive oil and spread onto the dough. Then smear the cottage cheese mixture all over the pizza, using the back of a spoon. You will have a little remaining. Don’t overload the pizza it will get soggy. Add the rest of the mozzarella cheese now sprinkled all over the mixture. You may skip this step if you wish. Next, add the roasted asparagus once cooled. Place them all in the same direction. Add the mushrooms through out, but mainly along the edges of the pizza. Then add in the rest of the Pecorino. Season well with black pepper, dried thyme and ground sea salt. Add another drizzle of olive oil.

Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes of until golden brown on the bottom. This will be a big hit and I bet no one will guess you used a cottage cheese. Enjoy!