When I was in high school a bunch of students and teachers went to Italy for a class trip. We visited Rome and I had the best "pizza" ever. I was finally able to recreate it! It has homemade crust, potatoes, rosemary, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese and a dash of salt and pepper. Recipe below.
Pizza Dough:
1 tsp. sugar
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. dry yeast
3 c. flour (more or less)
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
In large bowl, dissolve sugar in water. Sprinkle yeast over and let stand 10 minutes or until foamy. Measure flour and salt into a separate bowl. Stir oil into yeast mixture. Stir half of the flour/salt into the yeast mixture (I do this in my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook). Add the rest of the flour until the dough can be gathered into a sticky ball (this may even require a little extra flour). Knead dough by hand for 5 minutes or let the mixer do it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 10 minutes. Using a floured board or countertop, shape dough into a circle and stretch until slightly larger than the pizza pan (I use one that is about 12 inches). Transfer dough to an oiled pizza pan. Fold oustide edge over onto itself to create a thick crust. Add toppings (see below). Bake at 425 degrees for 13-15 minutes.
Roman Potato Pizza:
1 large russet potato sliced extremely thin (1.5mm - thinnest setting) using a mandolin.
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic finely minced
1-2 tbsp. parmesan cheese
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
dash salt and pepper
Drizzle unbaked prepared crust with 1/2 of the olive oil. Sprinkle with 1/2 the cheese and garlic. Lay potatoes in a single layer slightly overlapping on the whole pizza. Sprinkle remaining cheese, garlic and salt and pepper, then drizzle a bit more olive oil. Scatter the fresh rosemary on top and bake until edges are browned for 13-15 minutes in the upper middle rack. Serve while hot with another drizzle of olive oil. Then Mangia! Enjoy!
