Potato, rosemary & rocket pizza

I think it’s a law that every child should love pizza… and mine certainly do! This one’s a very different style to the usual however, as there’s no tomato nor mozzarella – or even pineapple! But delish nevertheless, and is also a leeeetle bit healthy…

Potato, rosemary & rocket pizza

Fresh from the garden: potatoes, rosemary, rocket
Recipe source: adapted from Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids
Serves:  8 or 24 tastes

What to do:

To make the dough:

• Place the water, yeast and sugar in the small bowl. Mix with the fork and leave for 5–10 minutes until the mixture looks frothy.
• Add the 2 teaspoons of oil to the yeast mixture and mix well.
• Place the flour and salt and yeast mixture in the bowl of the stand mixer and beat for at least 8 minutes, until the dough looks smooth.
• Brush the inside of a large bowl with a little of the extra virgin olive oil, using the pastry brush.
• Turn the pizza dough into the oiled bowl. Cover with a clean, dry tea towel and put in a draught-free place until the dough has doubled in size. This process, which is called ‘proving’, will take at least 1 hour.

What to do:

Start of lesson:

• Tip the risen dough onto the workbench and knead briefly, then shape it into a round ball and return it to the bowl.
• Cover the bowl with the tea towel and leave again, this time for at least 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C. You can prepare the topping now while you wait for the oven to heat up.

For the topping:

• Rinse the rocket leaves and dry them in the salad spinner. Shred the rocket into fine strips. Lay a piece of kitchen paper on a dry tea towel and spread the dry leaves over the paper and then roll the whole lot up like a log. Keep the rolled parcel of leaves in the refrigerator until needed.

• Shave off pieces of parmesan using either a grater (if it has a wide slicing option) or a normal potato peeler.
• Pull the rosemary needles from the stalks and chop them using the mezzaluna.
• Peel the potatoes, washing them as you go, and slice them very thinly and very carefully using the mandoline & guard.
• Tip the sliced potatoes into the large bowl and drizzle with most of the oil.
• Add the rosemary and salt and pepper, then mix together so that all the slices are lightly oiled.

Assembling the pizza:

• Scatter some flour on the workbench, divide the dough in two and roll to form two thin rectangles to fit the baking trays.
• Assemble the pizzas directly onto the trays, flouring the trays first.
• Arrange the slices of potato on the pizzas, overlapping them.
• Sprinkle most of the Parmesan over the potato, keeping some aside.
• Drizzle the pizzas with the last of the oil, then place the pizzas in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the edges are very crusty and the cheese is bubbling. 

Finishing off:

• While the pizzas are baking you can make the dough for the next class (see above).
• You may want to slip the pizza off the tray onto the rack for the last few minutes, so that you get a really crusty base.
• Once the pizzas are done, transfer them to the wooden chopping boards using the wide egg lifter.
• Cut the pizzas in half, and then into small slices or squares and then slide half a pizza onto each plate.
• Top each with a handful of the shredded rocket leaves and remaining parmesan.

Notes: Where does pizza come from? What type of potatoes will you use here? What other sort of vegetables could you use in a pizza? What sort of other pizza could we make?

Yes please, I’ll have another