Potato Pizza

Every time I go to Pizzeria Uno, I get the same thing: Pizza Skins and a Caesar salad. I suppose “pizza skins” is a play on “potato skins,” but the name is a bit misleading. It’s really a pizza crust filled with mashed potatoes and topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, and sour cream. Delicious.

Recently, I was searching for a copycat recipe, not really expecting to find one, and was surprised to come across Emeril’s Loaded Potato Pizza. This recipe actually is from a viewer who won Emeril’s potato recipe contest, and so I guess isn’t technically Emeril’s, but whatever. I was just excited to find the recipe.

I modified it just a bit—left out the tomatoes, changed the cheese, added some chives—and it was awesome.

Loaded Potato Pizza
adapted from Emeril’s Loaded Potato Pizza

Pizza Dough
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup warm water*

*I found that the proportions for the dough were a bit off. If needed, add a bit more warm water, a tablespoon at a time, just until your mixture comes together and forms a nice ball of dough.

Filling/Toppings
13 medium red skin potatoes, peeled
7 cloves of garlic, crushed and peeled
4 tablespoons butter
¾ cup of heavy whipping cream
Kosher salt
black pepper

6 strips of bacon
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup of shredded cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried chives

Make the dough first. Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in water and oil until dough ball forms. Cover bowl and set aside to rise, at least 30 minutes, while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 450°.

Put potatoes and garlic in a large pot and fill pot with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. When water is boiling, add a generous pinch of salt and lower heat just enough so that potatoes continue cooking at a gentle boil for 20 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, fry the bacon until just crisp (it’ll crisp up a bit more in the oven). Remove bacon, place on paper towels to drain, and add onions to the same pan while the bacon grease is still hot. Cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until onions are lightly caramelized. Remove from pan and set on a paper towel to drain off grease.

After boiling for 20 minutes, drain potatoes and garlic, return to pot, and mash. Add butter, cream, a teaspoon of salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Whip with a hand-held mixer until potatoes are smooth and creamy.

Roll out pizza dough on a generously floured surface. Work into a 12-inch round and place on a pizza pan. Don’t be afraid to man-handle the dough a bit—it can take it. Once dough is nicely shaped on the pan, sprinkle with onions and spread potatoes on top to within 1-inch of the edge of the dough. Top with onion powder, cheeses, crumbled bacon, and chives. Sprinkle with extra salt and pepper if desired.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Serving with a side Caesar salad is optional but highly recommended.

Before making this recipe I thought I’d end up serving the pizza with sour cream dolloped on top or on the side, because, in my opinion, a loaded potato is not a loaded potato without sour cream, but this really didn’t need it. It was delicious as is. I had a hard time keeping myself from just eating the whipped potatoes straight out of the pot. This is the first time I’ve made mine with heavy cream, and I now see that I’ve been missing out.