pizza Archives - NY Foodie Family

Pizza has been almost a Friday night staple in our house. Especially with Lent and us not eating meat on Fridays. Homemade pizza is super quick and easy and we all love it! When I have a little extra time, I try to make a more interesting pizza than just plain cheese. This pizza is a great no-meat addition to our pizza rotation. The potatoes, mixed with the slight heat of the crushed red pepper and the saltiness of the olives was a flavorful combination. I made a plain, cheese pizza for the kids and the Weekend Chef and I ate this pizza up!

Olive Potato Pizza
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, August 2001

Ingredients:
2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1 store bought refrigerated pizza dough
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives

Directions:
1. Place pizza stone, if have one, into oven and preheat to 450°.

2. Place the potato slices in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook 7 minutes or until tender. Drain.

3. Combine the potato slices, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic.

3. Roll pizza dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Once oven is heated, carefully take out the pizza stone and place the dough on it. Spread the potato mixture over the pizza crust, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle the pizza with cheese and olives.

4. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into 8 wedges.

We eat homemade pizza at least a few times a month, usually on Fridays. It’s quick, easy, and open to an almost unlimited number of toppings. Although we are capable of making and freezing our own dough, we are guilty of buying bagged dough at the supermarket. We have easy access to refrigerated dough from the Bronx and frozen dough from New Jersey. For the convenience and cost (about $1.50/ dough) that we can leave in the freezer until needed, we can’t help ourselves on this one.

Our parents stopped by this past week and we made a bunch of pies, from plain to veggie but the fancy one this week was a pear and gorgonzola pizza with a balsamic glaze:

Ingredients:
1 Pizza Dough (recipe or source of your choice)
1 Pear, sliced thin (we used Anjou)
Crumbed Gorgonzola (enough to cover the pie to your liking)
1 Cup of part-skim mozzarella
1/4 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 Tablespoons Olive oil (divided)
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
Flour for rolling the dough

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 with a pizza stone on the top rack (if you have one). Sauté the onion in 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat, until softened. Put the balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan on medium heat and allow to reduce by half, stirring occasionally so you have a syrupy consistency. Meanwhile, stretch out the dough, using plenty of flour so the dough doesn’t stick to you or the board. Pull the heated stone from the oven when hot and place on your stovetop. Move the stretched dough onto the hot stone and quickly brush with the remaining 1T of the olive oil. Add the mozzarella, gorgonzola, sautéed onions and pear to the top. Bake in the ovenfor approx. 8-9 minutes or until the crust is browned. Drizzle the balsamic glaze evenly over the whole pie. Slice into 8 pieces and serve hot.