Potato Mushroom Pizza

The first place I ever had a potato pizza was at the famed Vic's Pizza in Olympia while I was in college. I just don’t go out much these days, being the frugal housewife that I am, so I finally got around to making my own potato pizza.  And seriously… don’t knock it till you try it.  It’s SO good.
Mine, of course, has its own tweaks and variations, and I worked with the ingredients I had on hand—this week, my theme seems to be food with mushrooms.   You’ll see two other mushroom-inclusive recipes in the next 2 installments as well.



The quickest pizza dough recipe I’ve been inclined to use lately is this one: Half-Hour pizza dough, which I usually make with half whole-wheat, and half white flour.









I believe I have demonstrated that recipe earlier in another pizza blog entry that I posted last fall.  So I won’t rehash that part.  If you were in a hurry, there’s no reason why you couldn’t use a pre-made crust, like Boboli, or ready-made dough that you just bake yourself…
As far as the rest of the ingredients & directions, please read on.


INGREDIENTS:
1-2 red potatoes (or try Yukon gold, which will roast up nice & smooth, w/o getting mealy or mushy), scrubbed and very thinly sliced (about 1/4” thick)
5-7 Baby Bella mushrooms, or other mushrooms of your choice, wiped clean, and thinly sliced
4-6 green onion stalks, washed, and sliced into rings
1 cup grated mozzarella


For the sauce, I just mixed about 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 large clove of minced garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground pepper, and about 2 tbsp ground Italian seasonings… I currently have very few fresh herbs, and didn’t want to go out in the rain to start looking for oregano in my yard.
DIRECTIONS:

After thinly slicing the potatoes, layer them across a deep plate or casserole dish in cold water, with about 1 tsp of salt for about an hour.   When your dough has risen to full size, carefully and quickly knead the dough, adding flour as needed to keep it from being sticky. 
 

Put it on a pizza stone, or cookie sheet, and spread on the oil-mixture of seasonings. . .

Layer on potato slices, mushrooms, and green onions, and sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 375 for about 15-18 minutes.  Lower heat if the cheese browns too much.  I made the mistake of getting distracted, so my picture shows a very dark crunchy cheese topping.  I added a little more fresh mozzarella on top to cover up the burnt parts.  The most important part is getting the potatoes adequate time to roast, so the thinner they’re sliced, the better.

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