Janik’s brother was the first person to introduce me to potato pizza (thank you Jean-Francois! 🙂) I recall the thin-crusted pizza was topped with thinly sliced potatoes, fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil. That’s right, no tomato sauce and no cheese ☺️. Italian-inspired classic potato pizza is inherently vegan, how perfect.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – after all I had never seen ‘potato’ as a topping offering at any pizza shop – and must say I recall being intrigued by the taste. It was much lighter than I expected (for such a carb-heavy meal) and the pairing of potatoes with fresh herbs was delicious in its simplicity (a hallmark of Italian cuisine). This past holiday when we visited family in Ontario, I was lucky enough to experience potato pizza again. I immediately added it to my running list of “must make” recipes in my Trello app (which keeps me sane, lol). Today’s recipe for Rustic Potato Pizza has been brewing since Christmas Eve day and I’m happy to finally share it with you.

To be honest, I didn’t know where I wanted to go with this recipe other than wanting a potato pizza with bolder and more complex flavour than it’s traditional counterpart. To this end I started by grinding Himalayan pink salt with few garlic cloves and nutmeg powder to create an intoxicating pizza “rub” that I could use as a base layer under the layer of potato slices. Pan frying the potatoes until they’re golden (even crispy) is a step you don’t want to skip – it adds a delicious, rustic dimension to the pizza.  While classic potato pizza doesn’t have cheese I decided to make this my own by adding a few types of cheese. First, I topped the potato-herb-spinach layer with some of our savoury parmesan cheese. Then, I sprinkled a generous amount of Daiya’s Montery Jack Style cheese – a delicate, mild cheese – over the parmesan to balance the savoury dimension of the pizza (as a side note I’m normally not a fan of Daiya cheese, but this cheese block is wonderful!) A final sprinkling of nutmeg — with its kick of warmth and slightly spicy flavour profile – helps to marry all the flavours of this potato pizza together 😀.

If potatoes aren’t your thing (or I haven’t convinced you to try this recipe, lol) check out our other classic pizza varieties including our Three Cheese Pizza and our Balsamic Glazed Bruschetta Pizza.

Enjoy~

 Tip: The pizza dough requires it sit/proof at room temperature for 45-60 minutes so plan ahead~

Recipe Preparation

• 1/Make one batch of pizza dough (will make 3 medium-size 12” pizzas)
• 2/Make one batch of savoury parmesan cheese
• 3/Prepare potatoes: Cut 1 lb baking potatoes (unpeeled) into thin slices – not paper-thin, you want it thin enough to handle. Add slices to a pot of salted, boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
• 4/Using olive oil, pan fry the thinly sliced potatoes over medium-high heat (Note: You’ll want to fry in batches for best results).  Cook until golden, approx. 2-3 minutes per side. Keep warm.
• 5/Preheat oven to 450F

Ingredients

• 1 lb baking potatoes, thinly sliced & pan fried (See notes above)
• Olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled (10g)
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• Few pinches of Himalayan pink salt
• Few pinches each of dry rosemary, thyme & basil
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup savoury parmesan cheese (See recipe link above)
• 6-8 fresh spinach leaves
• Daiya® Monterey Jack Style Block Cheese, thinly sliced (25g)

Instructions

• 1/Add garlic, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp salt to your Thermomix mixing bowl. Grind 7 sec/Speed 7. Transfer to a small prep bowl; set aside.
• 2/Once pizza dough has proofed, divide into three sections. Place one mound of dough on a pizza stone or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush olive oil (generously) over the dough.  Now spread prepared garlic-nutmeg-salt mixture (see Step 1) over olive oil. Add a few pinches of dry rosemary, oregano and basil.
• 3/Add a single layer of pan fried potatoes over the herbs. Add fresh spinach leaves and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Add thinly sliced montery jack style cheese to the pizza; add some more ground nutmeg.
• 4/Drizzle olive oil over all ingredients; finish with a sprinkle of salt.
• 5/Bake at 450F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden and crispy.

Product Recommendation

*Daiya® Monterey Jack Style Block Cheese

Note: This recipe was made using a Thermomix appliance, however it can easily be adapted using similar food prep tools (e.g. mutli-function processor, immersion blender etc).