Potato Pizza

Something you should know about me - I LOVE to cook. It's genetic, my mom is amazing in the kitchen and I have luckily inherited her passion for cooking.  I was raised stirring and adding ingredients for my mom, so when I went to college, I had a basic knowledge of food. But my freshman and sophomore years involved a lot of Easy Mac and cheese grits. And pasta. Basically I survived on starch for four years. But now that I have my own kitchen, I finally have the ability to experiment and Stud is very willing to be my taste tester and he is honest with me. There have been some major flops, but some delicious successes as well. I thank him for his palate patience. Stud and I eat out a fair share, and I love to come home and attempt to recreate meals. My mom is better at recreating them, I tend to find recipes for what I had, make it once and then seventeen more times making little changes each time until I like it. Not very efficient, but it's how I roll.

So we come to pizza. I love pizza, who doesn't? And I have an obsession with gourmet pizzas. Don't get me wrong, I love the classics. But throw some funky things on there and I'm sold. We'll get more into that later. We have a local pizza place called Tony Boombozz that has some superb gourmet pizzas, my personal favorite being the Pollotate which is a pizza with chicken and potatoes. So when my mom told me there was a recipe for potato pizza in her new cookbook - My Bread - I immediately tried it out. With a few tweaks over time. Biggest perk is that I do not have to have a pizza stone to make the pizza - it cooks on a jellyroll pan! Now I have not been brave enough to make homemade pizza dough, that is the next step. I buy frozen dough balls from a local food shop, Lotsa Pasta. Anyways, here is the tweaked version of potato pizza.

Ingredients:
5 Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 qt. warm water
2 T. salt
1 Small Yellow Onion
2 T. Fresh Rosemary
1 T. Fresh Thyme
2 Cloves Garlic
Ground Black Pepper
Olive Oil
2 c. Mozzarella Cheese
Pizza Dough

Put the warm water and salt into a large bowl and stir until the salt is dissolved. Slice the potatoes into 1/16" slices using a mandoline (and have Stud help you if your arm gets tired) and add them to the warm water. They need to sit for two hours. So go watch some DVR. Maybe Next Food Network Star.

While the potatoes are sitting, pour about four tablespoons of olive oil into a small skillet and add the chopped thyme and garlic. Let simmer for a minute until the flavors are combined, but the garlic has not burned. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Once the potatoes are ready, drain them in a colander and press down to get as much moisture out as possible. Combine the potatoes, a chopped small onion, 1/3 c. olive oil, the chopped rosemary, and some fresh ground black pepper in a large bowl. It's really fun to get in there with your hands and mix it all up.

To assemble the pizza, drizzle olive oil on a cookie sheet and spread out so there is an even coating. Take the pizza dough and stretch it out so it covers the entire base of the sheet. Take the olive oil that has been simmered with thyme and garlic and pour it onto the dough and spread out evenly over the pizza. Then add an even layer of mozzarella cheese. Finally, add the potatoes to the top. Bake for 30 minutes. Then enjoy! The way I slice it, it makes twelve pieces.