Potato Pizza, Really? Really.

Home-made pizza has been a staple here for years and we moved beyond tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese many years ago. I've come to think of pizza dough as just another base for a meal, sort of our modern take on the early Medieval trencher - bread used as a plate (minus the staleness and lack of hygiene). I've heaped any number of ingredients on our pizzas but our favorite has sliced and roasted potato as the main ingredient.

It sounds awful, doesn't it? This recipe is inspired by a pizza my carb-junkie son Harry ordered at our favorite pizza restaurant, Baba Louie's (Great Barrington and Pittsfield, MA and Hudson, NY).  I skeptically took a bite that first time and was immediately won over - it was delicious.

However, I could neither just replicate their recipe (that would be stealing, right?) nor remember it exactly. And, I like to pile our pizza with vegetables, so a new recipe, inspired by Baba Louie's evolved.

One last thing before the how-to's: ironically, back in the day when I still thought popping frozen foods in the oven constituted cooking, I made my own dough. Now that I make almost everything from scratch, I buy pre-made dough. Go figure. If you want to make your own dough, I encourage you to do so and to google a recipe - there are plenty out there. I also encourage you to look for one using whole grain flours, whatever the flour of your choice. We use either Berkshire Mountain Bakery's spelt, or Sami's millet and flax crust. I can buy these locally - you might find other good pre-made brands closer to your home. I urge you though, if you use a pre-made crust to find something both healthful (think only a few ingredients that you recognize, and whole grains) and delicious.

Without further ado, the recipe:

1 pizza crust

1 (or more, much more!) potato, sliced into 1/8 inch slices

olive oil

Emeril's Southwest Essence or herbs/spices to your liking (oregano, basil, paprika, perhaps)

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 onion thinly sliced

1/3 cup pesto (other options would be garlic-infused olive oil or tomato sauce)

1 tomato, thinly sliced

options: red or orange peppers, steamed kale (or spinach), roasted or minced garlic, parmesan or other cheese (goat's cheese works great), thinly sliced chicken, or...whatever else your heart desires.

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

- After slicing the vegetables, I like to lay them on tea towels to dry - I find they roast better - they don't get soggy. However, this step is optional.

- Lightly coat the potato slices with olive oil. I find clean hands are the best tool for doing this. Season them with spices and lay them out on a baking dish. You can overlap them, but don't pile them too high or they won't cook well. Bake for 30 minutes or so until they're golden brown.

- Lightly oil the zucchini and onion and bake on a separate baking tray until soft - 20 minutes should do it.

- Once done, I usually let the vegetable sit for a bit so they're easier to handle, but this is optional. However, if I'm not building my pizza right away, I make sure to make extra potatoes as I find that if they're sitting around, too many people wander in and out of the kitchen taking "just one" and then there aren't enough left for the pizza. The last time I made pizza, I used six potatoes and I actually had enough left to use in a different dish the next day.

- Coat the pizza shell with pesto (or olive oil or tomato sauce)

- Layer on the potatoes, then the other vegetables, etc.

- Bake for 9 or 10 minutes until the crust is crunchy.

What do you think? You no longer have to sign in to comment, and I'd love to hear your reaction!