Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Potato Rosemary Pizza

I have finally made a good potato rosemary pizza. In the past, I have found it to be bitter (rosemary), blah (potatoes), messy to eat (the potatoes flopping around). Tony has always liked it, but I have had to edit to get it to a place I like. Here are my solutions. In brackets is the approximate amount I used for a large pizza.

-I used my favourite tomato sauce made with canned tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and olive oil simmered over a low heat until saucy (about half a cup).
-I added dobs of pesto sauce on top of the tomato sauce (about 2 Tbsp all together).
-I really minced, not chopped, the rosemary (about 2 Tbsp).
-I used chopped (small) Vidalia onion, which is nice and sweet (half a medium onion).
-Tonight, I used new white potatoes (4-5 small), but the traditional one to use for potato rosemary pizza is red potatoes. The reds look better, but I find the whites are just as good. And the potatoes really should be small, not much bigger than an apricot. This was one of my problems in the past- the ratio of potato to pizza space was too big.

One of the other things I’ve discovered really counts is the cooking of the potatoes. You must slice them thin, but not so thin that you have to use a mandolin. They should be about 4 mm thick, or about as thick as the end of a fork tine. You should be able to do it with a paring knife. In a frying pan, cook the potatoes in olive oil (about 3 Tbsp) over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. They must be golden, not just cooked through. This will give them extra texture and flavour (hence my blah results in the past). Then add the onion and the rosemary and continue to cook for about three minutes until everything smells wonderful.

Allow it to cool. In the meantime, prepare your pizza dough, spread with tomatoe sauce and pesto sauce. Then arrange the potato mixture evenly on top. Sprinkle with just enough grated mozzarella (about half a cup) to hold everything together.

Cook for about 7 minutes at 500F.

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