Red Onion, Potato and Goat Cheese Pizza

Friday seemed to come quickly this week, which is always a good thing, and that means we're back with another pizza night! Between the potatoes and crust in this Red Onion, Potato and Goat Cheese Pizza, we may end up in a carb-induced coma, but at least we'll be there with a smile on our face!

While our usual, easy to work with whole-wheat pizza dough was off rising in its bucket, we had to get the slender fingerling potatoes in a pot of water as they'll be pre-cooked before being added onto the pizza. Drop them in cool water, then put them on the stove to come to a boil, with a generous pinch of salt added as the rapid bubbles come up. Starting them off this way, rather than dropping them in already boiling water, will help ensure the little guys cook through evenly. Since the thin-skinned fingerlings typically run on the small side, it won't take them long until a knife can just pierce through them - a little resistance is fine though because you don't want them to fall apart either.

As soon as you can handle them, without literally playing hot potato, the potatoes are carved into thick coins and set aside until the pizza is set to take them on. While the potatoes were off cooling, I slid a skillet over one of our burners to start heating up, which we used to soften and dull the sharpness from slices we took off a red onion. Now that those were good to go, we took the malleable dough and stretched it into a large rectangle, rather than a rough round this time - though the latter would be fine too. Gotta change things up, right? As we love a crispier crust, we did our quick trick of setting the naked dough onto our heated stone until the top was no longer raw and the bottom gained a very light golden tone.

To that sturdy, but underdone-for-now crust, we scattered enough shredded mozzarella to cover the top, then arranged the potato coins and soft onions over the top. Even though the original recipe didn't call for this, I do suggest taking a couple pinches of salt and seasoning the those two vegetables - potatoes crave salt and in my opinion, if they are left alone, they can come across as being a little dull and uninteresting. Even though the mozzarella underneath and the goat cheese we then scattered over does have a salty tone, they still need a little help.

Before you think the pizza is ready to go back in the oven, we did sprinkle over one more ingredient - minced garlic! You can slice the cloves thinly to arrange on top, but mincing them into tiny dots allows them to reach into the nooks and crannies, allowing each square to dance in garlicky delight. Baked to finish off the crust, melt the mozzarella and heat those potatoes back up, as soon as it came from the oven, we dusted the top with a bit of fresh ground black pepper and the last of the fragrant fresh thyme we had growing in our herb box outside.

If you have never noticed fingerling potatoes in your market, try and seek them out as they are definitely worth finding. They can also be found in different colors, like the reddish-orange hued French fingerlings and those funky Purple Peruvian - these bright gems would surely make for a more dramatic presentation on this pizza!

Recipes
Red Onion, Potato and Goat Cheese Pizza