Potato and Zucchini Pizza

The homemade pizza Friday tradition has been going strong since we moved up here, and I don’t see it dying any time soon. There are just far too many possibilities! This idea came from Jamie Oliver, whom I completely adore. In fact, one of the ways I knew Mike was a keeper was the fact that he had a Jamie Oliver cookbook on his bookshelf.

Anyway, in his infinite wisdom, Jamie recommends cooking some new potatoes, slicing them up and tossing them with herbs, then layering them over pizza sauce with a few torn up pieces of mozarella to fill in the gaps. I used thin slices to maximize cheese coverage, and I added zucchini because we had some, and because it has worked its way up my vegetable ranking over the past few months. I used to hate the stuff and now I can’t get enough!

I found tiny fingerlings at Trader Joes and sliced them lengthwise, but any small potatoes should work well. Although I normally use the Big Sur Bakery dough made a day in advance, I had a lot going on and forgot to make it, so I used this quick version instead, and although it’s not quite as good, it works pretty nicely.

Recipe:
(adapted from Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver)

dough for 2 10″ pizzas
cornmeal
about 1/2 cup pizza sauce
4-6 very small potatoes, sliced 1/4″ thick
2 sprigs rosemary (leaves only), roughly chopped
4 sprigs of thyme (leaves only)
2 tbsp olive oil
6 oz mozzarella, thinly sliced
1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 500 F (with a pizza stone if you have one).
Boil the potato slices in a medium saucepan until fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well and toss with the oil, rosemary, and thyme (and a pinch or two of salt).

Sprinkle a handful of cornmeal on a cookie sheet. Stretch or stretch the dough out to a 10″ circle and place on the cornmeal. Spread about 1/4 cup sauce over the crust (more if you like), then layer with cheese, zucchini slices, and potatoes. Shake the pan a little to make sure the crust isn’t sticking anywhere. If it is, gently lift it up in places to sprinkle some more cornmeal.

Slide the pizza carefully off the cookie sheet and onto the pizza stone. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Slip the cookie sheet under it to remove it from the stone, then prepare and bake the second pizza just like you did the first.