Sourdough Baked Potato Pizza

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Pizzicletta

I visit Pizzicletta at least three times on each visit to Flagstaff and always come away inspired. One of the specials at the Dark Sky location was a Sourdough Baked Potato Pizza, the twist being a subtle kiss of lime. I recreated a version at home that was so good I made it two more times to dial in the ratios.

For the base, I recently changed up the process for my Sourdough Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough and that's what you see in the photo. It's basically a mashup of methods from my Sourdough Sicilian and original Neapolitan-style dough with 00 flour. I've been making pizza for so many years that things inevitably evolve a little, but each one is delicious in its own right.

Inspiration Tree

• Pizzicletta - The inspiration for this toppings combination. Outstanding sourdough pizza with two locations, plus some of the best scratch gelato. Always a must-stop in Flagstaff, Arizona.
• The Cheese Board Collective Works - My potato prep was inspired by the Potato Pizza in this cookbook. Cheese Board Collective Bakery & Cheese Shop is a Berkeley institution that opened in 1967. The cookbook features The Cheese Board's breads, pastries, and pizzas with California flair. Alice Waters writes in the foreword that when choosing a location for Chez Panisse, she wanted to be near The Cheese Board because she would be "among friends."
• Roberta’s - I lifted the cheddar ratio from the Baby Sinclair recipe. Similar to Gjelina, Roberta's cookbook is true to the restaurant in terms of recreating their flavors. The OG Roberta's is in Brooklyn and I made many trips out on the L train over the years to enjoy their sourdough pizza.

Farmers | Artisans

I make an effort to source my food from California artisans with a special focus on the Santa Monica Farmers Market. Below is a list of the people who contributed to this dish.

• Apricot Lane Farms // Allium
• Coleman Family Farms // Allium
• Peads & Barnetts // Bacon
• JJ's Lone Daughter Ranch // Citrus
• Garcia Organic Farm // Citrus

Scallions at The Garden Of... // Santa Monica Farmers Market

Tools

• Roccbox - I've owned this pizza oven for two years and use it almost every week. As can be seen in my naturally-leavened pizza posts here and here, the results are top notch. The oven is portable, easy to use, and requires virtually no maintenance. It's an investment but I highly recommend it.
• OXO Scale - Measure all the things. I've been using this scale for many years and it has done a great job.
• Thermapen - I use my Mk4 daily for sourdough, coffee, meat, quick breads (doubles nicely as a cake tester), and more. It's fast, nimble, and a snap to clean.
• Pastry Scraper

My Favorite Cooking Tools spotlights the kitchen equipment I have owned and used for years.

Pizza Mise

Ingredients

For Baking

• 8-ounce ball of sourdough pizza dough
• 115 grams raw potato slices (measured after prep, thinly sliced on setting 7 using this mandoline)
• 28 grams grated Flagship or Prairie cheddar
• 3 grams thoroughly mashed preserved lime rind
• 35 grams mascarpone
• 21 grams cooked bacon, chopped (measured after prep—instructions below)
• 40 grams low-moisture mozzarella, torn into 5 pieces

For Finishing

• 50 grams sour cream Note: This is a little more than you need.
• 7 grams minced chives or thinly sliced scallion greens. Note: Use the white parts for Charred Scallion Butter.

Instructions - Toppings

Bacon

• Heat oven to 425°F/218°C and move rack to the middle position.
• For easy cleanup, line a baking sheet with foil then place a sheet of parchment on top. Arrange the bacon in a single layer.
• Bake until you reach your desired crispness, 15–17 minutes for my liking. The bacon will crisp further in the oven so adjust the initial cooking accordingly to suit your taste.
• Reserve a tablespoon of bacon fat for the next step. Note: I pour all of the bacon fat through a coffee filter so it can be saved for later use. After filtering, refrigerate the liquid until it solidifies, then divide into 1-tablespoon portions and freeze. Cornbread is one of my main reasons to have this handy, but vegetables, chili, and plenty of other dishes benefit from some smoky cooking fat.

Potatoes

• Heat oven to 450°F/232°C and move rack to the middle position.
• Put a layer of paper towels on a plate and set aside.
• Drop the sliced potatoes into a bowl of water for a rinse before roasting. Note: I initially did this because I wasn't ready to roast, but reducing the starch seems to be beneficial and is recommended in The Cheese Board Collective Works.
• Thoroughly dry the potatoes, then toss them with 2 teaspoons of bacon fat and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a generous 1/4 teaspoon flaky Jacobsen sea salt, and several cranks of fresh pepper.
• Lay the potatoes in a single layer and roast until just about cooked through, 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer to the lined plate. Taste and add a little more salt or pepper if needed—they should be delicious on their own.
• The potatoes can be made hours in advance and refrigerated. Bring them to room temperature before baking.

Lime-kissed Mascarpone

• Combine the preserved lime rind and mascarpone for even distribution. Doing this the day before is even better since the flavors can marry.

Instructions - Pizza

I bake my Neapolitan pizza in a Roccbox with a deck temperature of 750–800°F/399–427°C. If using the oven, bake at 500–525°F/260–274°C and consider a quality baking surface such as a pizza stone or baking steel. You can also place the baking steel or stone on the oven floor for maximum heat if doing that isn't a hazard for your equipment.

Preheat

• When you're 40–45 minutes from baking, turn on the oven or fire up the Roccbox. See the oven note just above.

Mise en Place

• Assemble the ingredients and any other tools that you might need. Taking your mise en place seriously with pizza makes for a much more enjoyable experience.
• Flour the workbench thoroughly with ABC flour and then keep extra flour over to the side for your hands and dusting the top of the dough.
• Sprinkle your pizza peel with semolina. I don't use semolina anymore, but also don't advocate against it. I find that the dough slides easily off the peel when properly proofed and floured on the workbench. That said, semolina can be an insurance policy if you find your dough sticks.

Stretch

I intentionally overuse "gently" in this section. You're not trying to be a pizzaiolo hero who's ready for their close-up. Be nice to your dough.

• Flour your hands, then gently work your fingers under the dough, lifting it out and onto the floured workbench. Place it seam-side down as it was in the storage container (though there's not a seam at this point). The dough should be pillowy and easy to handle though it may be a touch tacky at first. This issue will resolve with the flour.
• Slide the dough around on the workbench to flour the bottom and ensure that there's no sticking. Generously sprinkle the top with flour.
• Put your hands side-by-side, and then, using the tips of your fingers, tap-tap-tap the dough from the center to the edge, making sure to stop 1 inch from the edge. The untouched dough will look lovely and full of fermented potential.
• Gently slide the dough around again to make sure the bottom is properly floured. Using your fists and avoiding that outside rim, gently rotate the dough until it is about 10 inches across. The "bottom" of the pizza dough should be touching your hand. The process should be relatively quick as the dough is relaxed and gravity will be helping things along.

Top & Jiggle

• Transfer the stretched pie skin from your fists to the pizza peel then add your toppings in this order:
  • Lime-kissed mascarpone
  • Potatoes
  • Cheddar
  • Bacon
  • Mozzarella
• Jiggle the peel to ensure that the dough isn't sticking. If it sticks (usually somewhere around the edge when it happens), gently lift that part of the dough and sprinkle a little semolina or flour on the problematic spot.
• Bake for 1–2 minutes at 750–800°F/399–427°C or for 10–12 minutes at 500–525°F/260–274°C in a conventional oven.

Finish

• Dress the pizza with some sour cream and chives or scallion greens. You have more sour cream than you need in order to make distribution easier.

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Subscribe at the bottom of this page for the Chic Eats roundup. It includes new and updated recipes along with a grab bag of unique content that was interesting enough to share around the dinner table.