Jon's Crazy Idea: Mashed Potato Pizza

I must admit when I watched "Pizza Outside the Box" on the Food Network Channel I wasn't excited. Who wants prosciutto and sweet corn on a pizza or grapes? Jon however was intrigued by the Mashed Potato Pizza made by Otto Pizza of Portland, Maine. I thought he was a bit crazy but who I am to discourage Jon from trying new foods? He and Josiah pestered me until I decided to try it yesterday.

I watched the episode and wrote down what they did. I have never actually written down a recipe that someone else didn't already do the bulk of the work on so there may be missing parts to this or I may not be specific enough in parts but I did my best. Just ask a question in the comment part if you aren't sure and I'll answer as quickly as possible.

The recipe looks a bit daunting in length but it really isn't so bad. Make the mashed potatoes a day ahead, cook your bacon ahead too and the whole process would go a lot faster. You could also buy two pizza crust mixes and that would simplify it as well. Let me know if you end up giving this recipe a try!

Mashed Potato Pizza

2 Crusts:

2 ½ cups flour

1 pkg yeast

1 c warm water

1 t salt

1 t sugar

2 T canola oil

Directions:

1.      Dissolve yeast in warm water.

2.      Add ½ the flour and beat well with a fork.

3.      Add sugar, salt, oil and stir well to blend.

4.      Add remaining flour and beat in well with a fork. If it is still sticky add flour until it is pliable without being sticky.

5.      Kneed dough on a well floured surface or bread board about 20 times.

6.      Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover in a warm location to let rise until doubled. Since it makes 2 crusts I split the dough before letting it rise.

Mashed Potatoes:

Ingredients:

6-7 medium/large Idaho Potatoes

Butter (I used 8 T or one stick- gasp in horror here but it was good)

Kosher Salt (or table salt if you don’t have kosher) to taste.

Heavy Cream

Directions: If you already know how to make mashed potatoes feel free to do it your way. In case you don’t though……

1.      Wash potatoes thoroughly or peel if you like.

2.      Chop into pieces and boil around 20 minutes or until you stick a fork in the potato and it splits in half easily.

3.      Add butter and incorporate thoroughly before adding cream or salt.

4.   Add Heavy Cream until desired consistency. For this recipe you don’t want them to be whipped but rather slightly chunky.

5.      Add salt to taste.

Set aside to cool

Pizza:

Ingredients:

2 unbaked Pizza Crusts

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Asiago Cheese

Mashed Potatoes

Mozzarella, shredded

Heavy Cream

Bacon, cooked, chopped

Green Onions, chopped

½ t dried Parsley

½ t dried Thyme

½ t dried Rosemary

Any of these spices can be fresh. Just use 2 T instead.

Directions:

1.      Move oven racks to the bottom of the oven.

2.      Preheat oven to 500. Make sure it is fully heated before beginning to bake.

3.      Cook 1 lb of bacon. I chop it into 1 inch pieces before cooking.

4.      While bacon is cooking: Roll out crusts on a well floured surface or bread board and place on pizza pans. 

    (Unless you have a baking stone and pizza peel. If you do…..cover pizza peel with corn meal liberally and build your pizza on the pizza peel. Then place pizza directly on baking stone from pizza peel. If you aren’t brave enough to use a pizza peel for transfer feel free to bake in a pan for about 5 minutes and then slide off pizza pan to baking stone. That is what I did. I used my pizza peel to remove the pizza then from the baking stone when it was done.)

5.      Brush dough with extra virgin olive oil.

6.      Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper.

7.      Layer with Asiago Cheese (this is a very important flavor)

8.      Cover with mashed potatoes.

9.      Layer with Mozzarella Cheese

10.  Pour heavy cream over pizzas. Around ½ cup each pizza. Don’t let it get soupy but don’t cut it short either. Sorry folks I didn’t measure.

11.  Drain bacon and layer over cheese.

12.  Chop green onions and layer with bacon.

13.  Sprinkle each pizza with ¼ t parsley, thyme, rosemary.

Bake at 500 degrees for around 10 minutes. Time will really vary based on your true oven temp, type of baking pan or baking stone. Watch it carefully. You want the crust to be crunchy and the top to be golden brown. I could tell it was done when I could smell it without opening the oven door.

It turned out amazing! Trust me. I wouldn't blog it here unless I thought it was incredible. It may just become my next fancy "company meal". So if you are headed my way any time soon, you may just get a chance to try it without all the effort!