One of the best and most ingenious pizzas I’ve ever had is a Bella Luna speciality, the Manny’s Grand Slam: mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon, scallions, and sour cream. It is good. It is immediately what I thought of when I saw a recipe for a Potato, Sage, and Rosemary Pizza in this month’s Bon Appetit. While I have never tried to re-create the Manny’s at home, I realized that I had all the necessary ingredients for the Bon Appetit pizza, and that the magazine also featured an easy-looking pizza dough recipe. Gilmore Girls and pizza Tuesday night seemed like an obvious combination to me.
This is one of the only times I’ve ever followed a recipe exactly. I didn’t add anything, I didn’t leave anything out, I didn’t substitute or get inventive at all. It sounded so good as written, and I do believe it was one of the best dinners I’ve made in awhile. The flavors blended perfectly. The pizza dough really was insanely easy to work with, and cooked up evenly (though it’s not as flaky as I like; I’m still in search of the perfect recipe). Both my housemates gave it many thumbs up, and I was right–pizza is a perfect complement to Gilmores. Of course, I can’t imagine Lorelei and Rory eating any pizza with potatoes on it, but I, for one, think potatoes on pizza is genius.
Of all the doughs I’ve been experimenting with lately, this was by far the easiest. The flour was easily incorporated, the dough didn’t get too sticky, it was easy to mix and to knead, and it rolled out smoothly and without sticking to everything. I am a fan. Of course, if I could figure out a way to make it just a bit flakier, and maybe a little crustier on the bottom, it would be perfect.
Giada’s Pizza Dough
(from the March 2007 issue of Bon Appetit)
- 3/4 c. warm water
- 1 packet of active dry yeast
- 2 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 3/4 tsp. salt (alright, I did change the recipe a little, I used 1 whole teaspoon of salt)
- 3 T. olive oil
Combine the warm water and the yeast, and let it sit until the yeast dissolves and it gets frothy, for about five minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and sugar until well combined, and then add the oil and the yeast mixture. Mix it with a fork until it forms a ball and all the flour is incorporated. The dough felt a little lumpy, but all the lumps smoothed out in the kneading process, so don’t worry about that.
Turn the dough out on a floured work surface, and knead it for about 5 minutes. You want it to get smoother and a little more pliable, but you don’t need to spend a ton of time doing this. Shape the dough into a ball, and put it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about an hour, until it’s doubled in size.
When you’re ready to make pizza, punch the dough down (which apparently gets out some of the air bubbles), and turn it out onto a cornmeal-dusted work surface (would that be a cornmealed work surface?). Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a circle. You can also pick it up to shape it a bit, if you know how to do that kind of thing.
After topping it, bake it in a 400F oven for between 15 and 25 minutes, until the crust is nice and browned on the edges.
Potato, Sage, and Rosemary Pizza
(also from the March 2007 issue of Bon Appetit)
This is a seriously tasty pizza topping. I will be thinking about this pizza for awhile. I bet it would also be awesomely good with a bit of prosciutto. Mmmm. Prosciutto.
- 2 medium to large red potatoes
- 3 T. olive oil
- pizza dough
- 2 tsps. chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tsps. chopped fresh sage
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 c. grated mozzarella
- 1/2 c. finely grated parmesan
Slice the potatoes into thin rounds, about 1/8 of an inch. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, and cook the potatoes in a single layer, for about 5 minutes or until they are just tender. I had to do mine in batches. Let them cool in a paper towel-lined plate.
Roll out the pizza dough, and lay the potato slices on it in a single layer. I guess it’s ok if they overlap a little bit. Sprinkle the garlic, rosemary, and sage over the potatoes, then the mozzarella, then the crushed red peppers, then the parmesan. I’m sure the order doesn’t matter so much, this is just how I did it.
Bake the pizza in a 400F oven, until it’s nice and browned on the edges, and the cheese is well melted.
Seriously, I can’t stop raving about this pizza. The pepper added just the right amount of bite, and the potatoes were nice and tender. The cheese wasn’t too heavy (I have a tendency to overdo it with the cheese), and even without adding any extra salt, it had just the right amount of flavor.
I have a suspicion that there will be more pizzas in my future. I have an even stronger suspicion that one of them will involve mashed potatoes and bacon.
(I also need to figure out the lighting situation in my kitchen. I am aware that the photo above is way too orangey-red. It also would be nice if I could figure out how to adjust those kinds of things with my photo editing software, but I don’t think it’s that advanced. My apologies.)