Pizza – the ultimate Football food, followed only by chicken wings. For this Sunday’s game day, I just decided to go with Pizza. The potato pizza is a family favorite. I first discovered it in Jim Lahey’s ‘My Bread’. This was the time when I first started experimenting with breads and one of my first successful attempts at bread making was his ‘No knead’ bread.
I remember my pizza making days back in India. I would buy a pre made pizza base, load it up with some spicy red sauce and top it up with tandoori chicken or vegetables and lots of Amul cheese. I can’t say pizza purists would have dared eat my concoction, but I used to get a lot of compliments for it. But going back now, I know it was all about the toppings and not about the crust. The more I understood dough baking, the closer I got to knowing what kind of pizza crust I liked. And the farther away I moved from buying a pre made pizza crust.
This potato pizza is a classic Italian pizza and a total package. You might be tempted to think that since it has no cheese and no sauce it will be meh. Meh it is not. The crust, the thinly sliced potatoes, rosemary and garlic come together in one delicious, crispy bite. I do add some chilli flakes or fresh chillies for heat. And on days when it is other than Football day, I serve it with a salad and steamed vegetables.
For today’s Football food, we had the potato pizza, chestnut soup and lot of veggies with a dip. Though the game did not go our way, we were still cheering on our team. Well that’s the thing about Football. Some days you don’t win, but then there is pizza ! #Footballfood Week3
Potato Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza dough
- 500 grams bread flour I used 00 flour
- 10 grams active dry yeast
- 5 grams salt
- 3 grams sugar
- 300 ml water I ended up using a couple of Tbs more as my flour was drier
- 2-3 tbs olive oil
Topping
- A big bowl full of tepid water
- 1 Tbs salt
- 4 Idaho potatoes medium
- 1/4 C diced onions I like the red
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
Instructions
Pizza Dough
- Stir together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl.
- Add water and mix it all together until just blended without any dry spots.
- Ensure you don’t mix it too much. once everything is mixed in, cover the dough and let rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
Prep the Potatoes
- Mix the salt into the bowl of water.
- Peel the potatoes and then wash them.
- Using a knife or mandoline and slice the potatoes very thin.
- Add the sliced potatoes into the salted water. This will keep them from oxidizing.
- Let them soak in the brine mixture for an hour or so.
- The potatoes will look soft after this soak.
- Drain the potatoes and pat them dry using a kitchen towel.
- In a medium size bowl, toss the potatoes,oil, onions, garlic rosemary and chilli flakes.
Assemble the pizza
- Tip the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half.
- Brush a baking sheet with olive oil or use parchment ( I used parchment to reduce the quantity of oil ) Then tip half of the dough on the pan.
- Stretch it out to the edges. And work it out all over the pan. This will be a very thin layer of crust, so it might tear. In that case pinch the tears back together and keep stretching it out.
- Spread half of the potato mixture evenly over the dough and double up the potatoes on the edges.
- Do the same thing with the other half of the dough and bake at 450*F for 30 minutes.
- Do preheat the oven at least 15 minutes prior to baking.