Monday, February 21, 2011

Potato-Leek Pizza

Unfortunately, we can't take credit for this recipe.  But the Pioneer Woman's Potato-Leek Pizza remains a household favorite — the sort of pizza we make for foodie guests who we want to impress with our culinary ingenuity and... erm... good taste.

And boy, does it taste good.

As the name suggests, the two main toppings are leeks and potatoes.



But then you throw on some bacon, mozzarella and goat cheese, and you get this perfect balance of salty, savory, earthy amazingness. You can follow the actual recipe above, or use our approximate list of ingredients:
  1. One pizza crust, rolled very thin with chopped garlic and fresh or dried rosemary pressed in to the surface, then par-baked. (That's our contribution to the improvement of the original recipe.)
  2. A layer of very thinly sliced red or Yukon gold potatoes. Raw. And did I mention thinly sliced? These potato varieties work best for pizza because they have a firmer texture than, say, russets and can hold their own with the other ingredients. But the slices need to be paper thin so that they cook before the rest of the pizza burns.
  3. Grated mozzarella
  4. Sliced leeks, sauteed for a few minutes ahead of time to soften them. You can use both the white bulb and the green stalk of leeks, but be sure to wash all of the layers well to get rid of dirt and grit.
  5. Several slices of bacon, pre-cooked (but not too crispy) and chopped. We like to cook the bacon first and then use some of the leftover grease to saute the leeks. (optional, of course)
  6. Chèvre (a.k.a. goat cheese) crumbled across the top
Bake the pizza in a fairly hot oven (450-500˚ F) for at least 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and then sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan.

It's a keeper.

3 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorite pizzas too - we made it last week and I thought, "I should tell Melinda about this for her pizza blog!" I'm glad you know about it. We never have goat cheese or bacon around, but it definitely doesn't suffer for the loss of either of those. It is perfectly delicious vegetarian and one of my favorite pizzas. I've never prebaked the crust before - I'll have to try that next time.

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  2. Haha. We've made it sans bacon too, and it is delicious either way. (Of course, ML is protesting that it can't possibly be as good without bacon...)

    After we had a couple of crusts adhere to the counter, ML decided to start par-baking the crusts to make the pizzas easier to maneuver once they're loaded up with toppings. Just 3 minutes or so to firm it up.

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  3. My husband remains stubbornly in the "potatoes do not go on pizza" camp, but I think bacon and goat cheese might just be the right selling points. He maintains that real Italians don't put potatoes on their pizza, but they DO. Hooray for pizza! We eat it weekly here so we welcome any new delicious topping ideas.

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