Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Potato Pizza

This is surprisingly good, but wouldn't make a dinner by itself like a good ol' delivery-type-pizza-with-2-pounds-of-cheese! I usually make this when I make a few kinds of "gourmet" pizzas and a salad. This one takes some planning ahead, so we can't put this in the "quick dinner in a pinch" category.

1. Make the pizza dough found here on my blog (a few months ago) the day before (same day works too, just don't refrigerate).
2. Make the melted onions well ahead, like at least an hour or 2.

Melted Onions (make ample and refrigerate the rest for other uses)

Thinly slice 2 or 3 large sweet onions. Use a heavy skillet with tight fitting lid if you have one, or a dutch oven, anything with a larger surface area and tight lid. Heat it over med/hi heat for a few minutes with about 1/4 cup of olive oil. Sprinkle the onions with a tablespoon of sugar and liberally apply fresh ground pepper and salt. Add onions to the oil in the pan and toss around until they are well coated with oil. Keep heat a little high for a few minutes, then turn down to way low and cover. Continue cooking on low and stirring occasionally for an hour or so or until the onion slices are indistinguishable and you have a brown paste-like product (that smells heavenly!) Allow to cool to room temp. Can be made well in advance.

Potato Pizza

Preheat oven to 425. Spread out pizza dough to very thin and prebake the crust for 8 minutes on a heavy pizza pan. Remove from oven (I place mine directly on my granite counter top to stop the cooking quickly) On the prebaked crust, spread a thinnish layer of the melted onions as you would tomato sauce. Cover with thin slices or shreds of Jarlsberg or other nutty Swiss cheese. Cover the cheese with very, very thin slices of Yukon Gold (new) potatoes. Brush the potatoes with a little extra olive oil (or olive oil spray/mist) and sprinkle liberally with fresh thyme, cover with kosher salt and pepper. I also like to sprinkle a little freshly grated Parmesan over the whole thing. Sprinkle flour on a pizza peel and pick up the pizza with it. Place directly on the oven rack set in the top of the oven. Bake about 15 minutes or so. Check every 5 minutes, as ovens can be very different. You want the potatoes to be done and slightly browning, and you want the crust crisp but not burnt on the bottom.