Recipe: Potato Mushroom Pizza

Although Spring is finally beginning there is still a month to go before the first true spring vegetables arrive.  In the meantime I find it nice to keep cooking with the year-round vegetables.  These include all the wonderful root crops that have been stored since the  fall, as well as the ones that are grown in greenhouses or are simply grown indoors year-round, like mushrooms. 
So really this pizza recipe is one that can be made all year long!  You just need some potatoes and mushrooms, along with some dried or fresh rosemary and your favourite cooking oil or butter.  The roasted potatoes become the base for the pizza, so make sure they are thick enough that while they are crispy on the outside they are creamy on the inside.

Ingredients:
1 medium potato, sliced in thin rounds (a bit thinner than 1 cm)
1-2 tbsp. oil
Salt and pepper
Several sprigs fresh rosemary, or 1-2 tbsp. dried
½ pound Crimini or Button mushrooms, sliced thinly
2-3 tbsp. butter or oil
Pizza dough
Shredded mozzarella
Balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400◦F.  Toss the potato slices and half the rosemary with oil, salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a baking sheet and roast until the potatoes are beginning to turn gold but before they turn brown.
Meanwhile heat a frying pan over medium heat with the butter (or oil, but butter is better in this case…).  Add the mushrooms and remaining rosemary, a dash of salt and pepper, and fry until they have released their juices and are very fragrant.  Turn off the heat and add a few glugs of balsamic vinegar and toss the mushrooms around with it. 
Raise the heat of your oven to 500◦F.  Stretch your pizza dough (here’s a how-to video), and top the pizza with the roasted potatoes.  Cover the potatoes with a layer of shredded mozzarella followed by the fried mushrooms.  Make sure to get all the melted butter out of the pan and onto the pizza! 
Bake the pizza until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to turn gold.  Remove, slice, and enjoy!  For some extra decadence drizzle some truffle oil on top of the finished pizza.

Even More Asparagus

You’ve already eaten a lot of asparagus, but you don’t want to stop

Since asparagus is still in season, and still super delicious you might need another idea of something else to do with it.  Why not put it on pizza?  Strangely the first place I ever had asparagus on a pizza was in Honduras.  I don’t think asparagus is grown there so I’m not sure what inspired La Albahaca (“The Basil,” my favourite pizzeria in Tegucigalpa) to put canned asparagus on a pizza but I always ordered it, both because it was tasty and I never ate asparagus there otherwise.  So now I put asparagus on my pizza whenever I have it.  It works with frozen asparagus but is best with fresh asparagus (isn’t that true of all vegetables?). 

Asparagus Pizza, with Potatoes and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

·        ½ lb (250g) mushrooms, sliced

·        1-2 tbsp. butter

·        1 tbsp. maple syrup

·        1 small potato, sliced in ¼ inch rounds

·        4-5 asparagus spears, chopped

·        ½ - ¾ cup grated mozzarella cheese

·        ½ - ¾ cup pizza sauce (we just use leftover spaghetti sauce)

·        pizza dough

Preheat the oven to 400^◦F.  Heat a pan over medium-high heat and fry the sliced mushrooms with the butter and maple syrup until they are greatly reduced in size and nicely caramelized, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile place the potato slices on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, then flip and roast another 10 minutes and remove.  Steam or boil the asparagus for 3-4 minutes.

Increase the oven heat to 500^◦F.  Stretch the pizza dough, top with sauce and cheese, then follow with the roasted potatoes and caramelized mushrooms, and finally the asparagus.  Bake the pizza until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbling.  Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

Need another asparagus pizza idea, try this one that we made last year and also featured rhubarb!

Jon Spee is a Bailey’s member who can be a bit obsessive about local food.  To make sure he doesn’t talk about it too much he writes about it instead at The Local Kitchener.

Gluten Free Potato "Bun"

Spring is here and grilling season is getting underway.  Here’s a new idea for a simple gluten-free alternative to wheat buns, and it’s one that is very locavore-friendly!  If you use these buns with veggie burgers you could argue that it is a truly all-veggie dish!

All you need is a large round potato.  Slice it in half, and then imagine each half as an uncut hamburger bun.  Cut the “buns” in half again, toss with a small amount of salt and oil, and roast at 425 for 15-20 minutes.  Turn the potatoes over, roast for 15 minutes more or until they are golden and bubbly looking.  Allow to cool a little bit before topping with burger condiments and your favourite style of burger!

The Beet Goes On… The Pizza!

This is the follow up to the previous recipe, in which roasted winter vegetables were loaded onto a simple sandwich.  This version takes the same idea of roasting beets and potatoes but puts them on… pizza!  It’s an amazing pizza, and for our family, the realization that potatoes make an awesome pizza topping has been a game changer!  If you’re not up to trying this with beets consider substituting mushrooms and onions.

The Beet Goes On… The Pizza!

Ingredients:

·        1 large or medium potato, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        1 large beet, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        local oil (soy, canola, sunflower)

·        pizza dough

·        pizza sauce (about ¾ cup)

·        mozzarella, grated (about ½ - 1 cup)

·        very sharp cheddar, grated (about ½ cup)

·        1-2 scallions or leeks, sliced into small rounds

Preheat the oven to 400.  In a bowl toss the potato slices with a little bit of local oil and a bit of salt and pepper.  Arrange the potatoes on a baking sheet, and toss the beet slices with oil (this prevents the beets from dying everything red!).  Add the beets to the baking sheet and roast at 400 until the potatoes are beginning to turn golden and bubble, about 30 minutes. 

Remove the vegetables from the oven and allow them to cool slightly while stretching your dough.  (And turn the oven up to 500).  Top the pizza with pizza sauce, then the roasted potatoes, next the mozzarella and cheddar, finally the beets and scallions.  Bake the pizza until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is beginning to turn golden or brown.  Every oven is a little different so keep an eye on the pizza, it will probably cook in about 4-7 minutes.

Recipe from Bailey’s member, Jon Spee, who blogs about localism at The Local Kitchener.

The Beet Goes On… The Sandwich!

Winter is over and Spring is in the air (finally).  However Spring’s bounty will not begin to arrive for a few more weeks.  Fortunately thanks to the wonders of storage there are still plenty of awesome root vegetables from last season!  This sandwich showcases three of them, but the beets take the lead role for reasons mostly related to the name….

The Beet Goes On… The Sandwich!

Ingredients:

·        1 large beet, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        1 large or medium potato, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        1 really large parsnip, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        local oil (soy, canola, sunflower)

·        a few slices of very sharp cheddar

·        lettuce

·        bread

·        mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, etc.

Preheat the oven to 400.  In a bowl toss the potato and parsnip slices with a little bit of local oil and a bit of salt and pepper.  Arrange the potatoes and parsnips on a baking sheet, and toss the beet slices with oil (this prevents the beets from dying everything red!).  Add the beets to the baking sheet and roast at 400 until the potatoes and parsnips are beginning to turn golden and bubble, about 30 minutes.  Add the slices of sharp cheddar to the potatoes and cook a bit longer until the cheese is melted.

Remove the vegetables from the oven and allow them to cool slightly while toasting slices of bread.  Top a slice of bread with your favourite condiments (we used a sauce made of spicy mustard, mayo, ketchup, and dash of balsamic vinegar), add some lettuce, and arrange the parsnips, potatoes, and beets in a stack, topping with another slice of bread.  Serve with tzatziki, or a cucumber salad, or a bean salad for extra protein.  Enjoy!

The follow up to this sandwich is the pizza version, coming soon!

Recipe from Bailey’s member, Jon Spee, who blogs about localism at The Local Kitchener.