the betsy blog

I feel like everyone complains of a full Pinterest board – but no time to try anything.

Guess what folks? This girl has time. And plenty of it.

So each week, I’m going to make/bake/cook something off of Pinterest. And I’m going to invite friends over to help me try it, because let’s face it, I absolutely can’t eat a whole crock pot full of enchiladas… and I love dining with friends (and their dogs, but that’s a blog post for later).

This week, I was inspired by Liren and Roxana over at Roxana’s Home Baking Blog by the tempting and amazing potato pizza that Liren made for Roxana. Back home, my absolute favorite restaurant has a to die for potato rosemary pizza. I miss it like crazy and I thought this guy might be the solution to that craving.

Bad news: I was reminded that no one can compete with the amazingness that is Bread & Cup. The pizza, the dessert, the simple salad, the wine, the friends… but I digress. Good news: thanks to Liren, I have a pretty tasty runner up!

So here’s the recipe (with a few of my edits):

Ingredients:

1. Pizza dough (yeah, I bought it from the store, and it was still wonderful)
2. 2 tablespoons olive oil
3. 1/3 2/3 cup gorgonzola cheese (oh please,  I adore cheese and if you’ve got it, use it)
4. 2-3 SMALL potatoes (if they are large, use 2) –  thinly and evenly sliced (get a good knife)
5. Kosher Salt (sea salt, whatever salt you have in the back of your spice closet…)
6. Freshly ground black pepper (yeah, or the kind from the can)
7. Fresh thyme (if I was doing it again, I’d consider using Rosemary instead...)
8. (I made two pizzas and on the second one, I put chopped Walnuts, a tasty additon)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place an oven rack in the lower half of the oven.
2.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pizza dough to your desired shape, about 1/4 inch thick.  Transfer the dough to an oiled baking sheet and press the dough with your fingertips, creating dimples and a 1 inch border around the perimeter. Take a cookie sheet, spray some cooking spray on the pan and roll your store bought dough out. Pinch the corners up about an inch to create the crust.  Sure, it’ll be a rectangle, but guess what? It’s still tasty.
3.  Top with the cheese and potatoes. Brush the potatoes and the crust bordering the pizza with olive oil (turns out, if you don’t have a brush, a spatula will work nicely!). Season with salt and pepper, and scatter the thyme (or rosemary and walnuts!).
4. Bake for about 15 minutes (mine took 25), or until the crust is golden brown and the potatoes tender. Remove from oven and let it sit for about 1-2 minutes before slicing. Serve it with a salad for lovely and simple dinner.

And for my “real life” photos of the project:

I’ve owned a potato peeler for years. First time I’ve used it. There’s pride in that.

Yes, it’s from a can. Yes, that’s the cheaters version. But guess what? It was delish.

I suppose the continuous opening of the oven may be the reason it took a bit longer to cook…

It looked amazing. Probably helped by my super fancy photo taking skills. Well, that and Instagram…

It was tasty, it was fairly easy (prep time 25 minutes, cook time 25 minutes), it was inexpensive (total cost for two pizzas: $11.95 – with extra potatoes and thyme) and got rave reviews from the five people it fed. I’m calling it a win and I’ve officially pinned it with positive reviews on Pinterest.

So tell me, are there Pinterest projects/recipes that you’re dying to try? Let me know in the comments section and I’d love to add them to my weekly Pinterest Challenge board!

It just got cold here. Real cold. And blizzardy. And I’m thinking after Christmas celebration next week, a nice easy meal of crock pot something or other might do the trick…