1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F / 260 degrees C and set a baker's half sheet to the side.

For the pumpkin sauce base:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the pumpkin puree, garlic oil (or olive oil + minced garlic), red pepper flakes, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir often until the mixture becomes hot and begins to bubble slightly. Carefully taste for salt and adjust if necessary. Reserve to the side.

For the crispy sage leaves:

1. In a small skillet over medium-high heat, heat a few tbsp of olive oil or avocado oil. The skillet only needs a thin, even coating to cook the sage leaves evenly. As they are so thin and cook so quickly, the goal is not to drown them in oil as you might when deep-frying.
2. Once the oil is hot, add sage leaves to the pan in small batches spaced apart from each other. The sage leaves will cook very quickly around 15-30 seconds per leaf is generally perfect to crisp them fully, while still retaining their lovely green color.
3. Remove crisped sage leaves to a paper towel-lined plate reserved to the side as you work in batches and sprinkle with salt while hot.

Assembling the pizza:

1. Shape your dough. If you prefer a classic pie-shape with a thicker crust compared to the center of your dough, I suggest hand-stretching your dough. If you prefer your pizza to be an even thickness, I suggest rolling your dough out with a rolling pin.
   • If you are hand-stretching your pizza dough:
     1. I like to rub a small amount of olive oil into my hands first; this allows me to shape the dough easier without it ripping accidentally from friction.
     2. Press the dough down with the palm of your hand into a disk shape, then use your fingertips to gently press down on the dough disk, further flattening it.
     3. To further extend the dough, I prefer to press one palm on top of one side of the dough and with the other hand lift the alternative side of the dough and gently work the dough outward, pulling very gently with the tips of my oiled fingers (like a very discrete “come hither” motion) to slowly stretch the dough out. Rotate slightly and repeat until the dough is shaped and stretched to your liking. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again. Transfer your stretched dough to a sheet of parchment paper.
   • If you are using a rolling pin:
     1. I prefer to place my dough between two sheets of parchment paper to avoid the dough sticking to my rolling pin, but if you prefer you can also sprinkle a bit of flour over the dough ball as well as wiping some over your rolling pin by hand to prevent sticking instead. Once the dough has been rolled to your preferred size and shape, peel the top layer of parchment paper off (if using). The bottom layer that the dough is resting on can be utilized for your baking sheet. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again.
2. Transfer your shaped dough to the reserved baking sheet.
3. Top with reserved pumpkin sauce, using the back of a spoon spread the sauce out evenly over the dough.
4. Top the pizza with mozzarella and Gruyere cheese.
5. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the crust has reached your preferred level of crispness and the cheese is fully melted. I find that pizzas that have a thinner topping layer take less time to bake and heavier-topped pizzas generally take a bit longer to bake so watch your pizza closely after the 14-minute mark and adjust as desired.
6. Once the pizza is baked, top with reserved crispy sage, slice, and serve warm.