potato, onion and swiss chard pizza
Sometimes letting the recipe speak for itself if the best thing ever. Which is why I will keep this short and sweet and flood your screen with pictures and just the recipe. Pizza dough is one of the easiest things to make, and yet it gives you an amazing sense of accomplishment and this certain satisfaction of working with your hands.
I was very scared of working with yeast, and I’m not sure why. For some reason I thought it was a temperamental thing, yeast, that would not yield to me. But it did and so beautifully too. Pizza dough is going to be a regular thing, I tell you. And if you are short on time and can’t wait 2 hours for it to rise, just stick it in the fridge overnight and the next day it’ll all be ready for you. You just have let the dough come to room temperature, which could take a bit of time, but at least you have your work already done.
I can’t tell you how easy this was and how much fun! Clean-up, I’ll confess was way less fun as scraping the doughy bits off the granite counter took Herculean patience – they are sticky little buggers. But it’s well worth the effort, I promise you. And unlike delicate pastry dough that fears humidity, this dough is way more robust. Just prepare for your apartment to heat up substantially – as the temperatures you’ll be using to cook your pizza will be scorching hot!
And speaking of scorching hot, July is finally upon us and with it are the scorching temperatures. I hope everyone’s 4th of July is festive, hot, and filled with picnics!
Potato, Onion and Swiss Chard Pizza
Inspired by Deb at Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
1½ cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
½ cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 Russet potato – thinly sliced
½ medium onion thinly sliced
3 tbsp Swiss chard, sliced in thin ribbons
Preparation:
Stir flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring the mixture into a somewhat homogeneous lumpy sphere. Dump the lump onto a lightly floured counter and knead into a ball.
Deb mentions that if the dough is not cooperating with you right away,you should give it a few minutes’ pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes. You will find the dough a lot more cooperative and pliable by then.
Knead the dough for just another minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl where you had mixed it, place the dough back in in, make sure all sides are coated with oil. At this point you should cover the bowl it in plastic wrap and leave it be for an hour or two. The dough should roughly double in size at this point.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and gently press the air out using your palms. Fold the dough back into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.
Preheat your oven – I followed Deb’s advice and raised the temperature to its highest possible. Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal, and roll out the dough in a circular or rectangular shape.
Place on top thinly (thinly!) sliced pieces of potato, onion, and Swiss chard. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a few ribbons of remaining Swiss chard and drizzle with a bit of the finest olive oil you have. Enjoy immediately!
Helen
Yummy! I absolutely adore potatoes on pizza – probably the only acceptable carb on carb combo. Apart from chip butties (v. English!), of course. Nice idea putting the swiss chard on there – I’ll have to try that.
nicole
Beautiful photos, bet it tasted good too. I’m on a kick lately of making pizzas on the grill. Get your grill nice and hot, spray or rub each side of the rolled dough with oil, lay on the grill until the underside is brown, then flip, top and finish grilling (slightly off the heat and with lid closed) until the toppings are done!
Ellie @ Kitchen Wench
Nice work! I absolutely love potato pizza though mine is usually boring with just potato and rosemary, will try this next time as onions go so nicely with a nice spud!
Mike S
Hi Sassy. I have to admit, this is not a comment about your current post. I just read your comment on Deb’s (www.smittenkitchen.com) blog about your dislike of poaching eggs. I thought I’d share my mother’s secret tip with you.
1 tbsp of vinegar in your pot of boiling water.
And then there’s the standard, crack your egg into a separate small dish and slide it into the water slowly
But I do swear, the vinegar works wonders. You’ll still get a little bit of flyaway egg white (especially when you’re poaching eggs for yourself, your husband, and your six small children for christmas morning Eggs Benedict like my mother used to do), but the eggs will stay much more “together”.
Hillary
Nice looking pizza dough!