garden-inspired pizza: potatoes, onions, and rosemary

A trip to my mother's over the weekend yielded 13 pounds--POUNDS--of fresh produce. Five of those pounds were counted in carrots, but we also came home with chard, the last of the spring lettuce, squash, green beans, parsnips, onions, shallots, and potatoes.

You know that it brings me such joy to share in the harvest of my mom's garden, and I have a game plan for the 5 pounds of carrots that we wound up bringing home with us.

But first, let me tell you about this extraordinary pizza.

I had big plans for Sunday, and utilized the bread machine by making a loaf of artisan foccacia (managed not to take any pictures, oops!) and then prepping Monday morning for a double-batch of pizza dough.

Things fell into place better than expected. I'd seen a few recipes circulating the blogosphere last week for potato pizzas: simply crust topped with EVOO, thin-sliced potatoes, onions, and rosemary.

I hadn't gotten to that pizza last week, as we went for Homeslice instead, but that was perfect--I realized when my mom sent us home with a few garden potatoes that my potato pizza was going to be better than I'd anticipated.

Add one of her beautiful onions, some rosemary from our container garden, a little garlic, homemade whole-wheat pizza dough, some organic olive oil, sea salt, and pepper... And that's one winning combination.

Enter deadline day. While waiting for some files to come my way, I happened upon yet another potato pizza recipe, this one from the NYT. If ever there was a bright, shining light from heaven pointing me straight toward a dinner plan, this was it.

Potato pizza on the brain, I finished up a later-than-usual night at work and pushed the speed limit home, anxious to get my hands into that dough.

Oh, stop. Too sexy.

I digress! I took an important tip from the NYT (boiling the whole potatoes first), but mine went like this:

Pizza Night Tre
Garden Inspiration: Home-grown Potatoes, Onions, and Rosemary

1 pizza crust
3 small-medium fresh potatoes, preferably red
2 tbls olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin (I carefully used the mandoline)
1 small garden onion, sliced thin (mandoline again here)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
1 ounce/2 tbsp finely shredded aged white cheddar (any very sharp cheese will work here, like parmesan)
a little extra EVOO

In a pot, cover the whole potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until a knife goes in easily. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and let cool. In the meantime, place a baking stone in the oven and preheat to 450. Slice the onion and garlic on a mandoline, or as thinly as possible with a sharp knife.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice into 1/8-inch wide discs. Remove baking stone from the oven and spread the crust onto it (no need to blind-bake this one). Brush the crust with olive oil, and put the potato slices on in a single layer.

Add the thin-sliced onions and garlic, distributing them evenly across the pie. Sprinkle on the rosemary and shredded cheese, and top with salt and pepper.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

~*~

This pizza was incredible, and healthy to boot. The flavors of the fresh potatoes and onions shone through, and the garlic was so thinly sliced that it merely added a nice kick instead of overpowering the pie. The white cheddar melted beautifully and, contrary to my own cheese-friendly leanings, even just the small amount I used made a nice addition to the pizza. And you can't go wrong with a sea salt/rosemary/olive oil combo--the perfect way to round out an otherwise plain-jane dish.

You must, must, must try this!