Pesto Potato Pizza ( A St. Patricks Day Pizza)

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In the last post, I taught you how to make fresh pesto. Today I’m going to show you something you can do with the pesto.

I have been watching Worst Cooks in America on Food Network. In the show they take people who are awful cooks and train them in the kitchen. These people are bad. It’s sad. Some of them don’t even know what spinach looks like. But each week they get better. It’s proof that anyone can learn to cook and that it’s more about getting organized and following directions, than anything (See my post about avoiding kitchen catastrophes).

Anyway, the third episode in the current season (third season) is all about flavor combos. The competitors learned how to make a basic pizza crust and then they experimented with different flavors as pizza toppings. There were some pretty scary pizza’s. For instance, a pizza with a ring of walnuts in the crust. The walnuts burned. It was kind of sad and funny at the same time. As I watch this show I like to try and imagine what I would do if I were a competitor on the show. I found myself trying to come up with flavor combos for a pizza. I decided to give it a try and I think my pizza turned out to be a winner!

I combined the flavors of fresh pesto, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes, potatoes, and mozzarella. So delicious! I know potatoes sound kind of weird as a pizza topping, but you just have to trust me. They are fantastic! Plus it kind of fits with St. Patrick’s day, right? Green pesto, Irish potatoes. Ignore the fact that the flavors are actually Italian, and just roll with me on this one.

Oh, and I must say a word about this crust. It is the easiest, quickest pizza crust I have ever made. You don’t even need to wait for it to rise. You do need Fleischmann’s Pizza Yeast. I found mine at Wal-Mart, but sometime it’s hard to find. You can get in on Amazon, if you can’t find it anywhere else. It’s a handy thing to have on hand.

PRINTABLE RECIPE
Easy Fast Pizza Crust:
Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 Envelope Fleischmann’s Pizza Yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 C. warm water (120 to 130 degrees)
• 3 TBSP oil
• cornmeal

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine 1 C. of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil. Mix until well blended. About 1 minute.
2. Gradually, add enough remaining flour until a soft dough ball is formed. The dough will be slightly sticky. I didn’t actually add that much flour.
3. Knead on a floured surface adding additional flour as needed until it’s smooth and elastic. I actually used my dough hook and mixer to knead it. About 3 minutes.
4. Sprinkle corn meal on a pizza stone or baking sheet. Roll dough out on top of the corn meal into a circular shape. Push up edge of dough to form a crust. Use a fork to poke a couple holes in the crust.  Top as desired and cook 12 to 15 minutes.

Pesto Potato Pizza:
Ingredients:

• Pizza dough, rolled out
• Fresh pesto (click here for recipe)
• 2 heads roasted garlic
• sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil
• mozzarella cheese
• crumbled bacon
• 3 red potatoes
• a drizzle of olive oil
• Italian Seasoning
• salt
• pepper

Directions:
1. Before you start making the dough, roast the garlic. This will take about an hour to roast, so just give yourself enough time. To see how to roast the garlic, click here. If you are making the pesto for this pizza, you can just use a couple of these roasted cloves in the pesto sauce.
2. While the garlic is roasting, mix up the pizza dough and spread it out on the pan. Poke the dough with a fork all over.  Make the pesto if needed. Spread the pesto sauce evenly on the pizza crust dough.

3. Wash and thinly slice the red potatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place the potato slices in the water and boil for about 5 minutes. Remove from water and rinse with cold water. Pat dry. In a bowl, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the potatoes and toss with the Italian seasonings, salt, and pepper to taste.
4. Sprinkle the mozzarella on top of the pesto sauce. Place potato slices on top of the cheese. Dot the pizza with cloves of roasted garlic and sundried tomatoes. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon and a little bit more cheese.

5. Bake pizza at 425 F. for 12 to 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.

Pizza crust recipe from Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast