Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

This recipe comes with a pretty serious warning: once you start making your own pizza dough and keeping it handy in the freezer… you will not. stop. making. pizza.  For a long time, I thought pizza was one of those things best left to the professionals; when I made it at home is always seemed like a lot of work for something that never quite lived up to what I expected.

So what changed?  First of all, I started making big batches of dough, dividing it up into single-pizza portions, and freezing it.  Pizza dough freezes extraordinarily well and thaws on the countertop in no time at all.  So that took the hassle-factor out of it.  Secondly, I found this recipe (from the same genius that brought us no-knead bread) in Bon Appetit last year.  Not only is it absurdly easy to throw together, but it makes some of the best pizza crust that I’ve ever had.  Baked up, it is tender, chewy, and gets perfectly bubbly, crispy edges.  Simply put, pizza nirvana.

So now, instead of being a risky endeavor, homemade pizza has become one of my easy, go-to dinners.  And now that I’ve found a good dough, I’m comfortable enough to branch out from plain old Margherita and the like.  I know, I’m a daredevil!

Even so, potato on pizza sounded a little iffy to me.  It seemed, I don’t know… hedonistically carboholic.  I admit I was doubtful.  But, heck, I had the potatoes, I had the goat cheese, I had the asparagus… when would this moment in time come again?  (And really, truly, who do I think I am that I can’t enjoy something hedonistically carboholic?  Please.) And so I tried it.

You know what my favorite part of this pizza is?  It’s gonna sound weird.  It’s the potatoes.  That’s a big statement when the other parts of this pizza are creamy goat cheese, asparagus (which is amazing and in season right now) and my new favorite pizza crust.  But, yeah.  The potatoes.  Something happens to them.  They get all creamy and meld into the crust and absorb the garlic oil.  I shudder to think that I almost didn’t include them.  I may have never known the wonders of potato on pizza.  Thank goodness that won’t be my fate.  Now don’t let it be yours!

Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

I used a fancy fingerling potato mix that had white, yellow, and blue potatoes, but that’s not necessary.  To make this even simpler, you could easily used pre-made pizza dough, which is available at some grocery stores or pizza places.

adapted from Bon Appetit

5 ounces fingerling potatoes

1 lb Pizza Dough (this is my favorite recipe, but you can use whatever you’d like)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 garlic clove, pressed

4 green onions, thinly sliced, divided

4 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

8 ounces asparagus, trimmed, each spear cut in half lengthwise

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place potatoes in small saucepan. Add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Sprinkle with salt. Bring to boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Cool. Cut potatoes into thin slices.

Preheat oven to 450°F. If you are using a pizza stone, let it preheat in the oven.  If you don’t have a pizza stone, two sheet pans, doubled up and turned upside down, make a good substitute. Roll and stretch pizza dough to 16×11-inch-ish oval. If you don’t have a pizza peel, (which I don’t), I like to complete this step on some parchment paper, so you can easily transfer it onto the baking sheet or stone.  *Alternatively, you can assemble the whole thing on a baking sheet, not worry about preheating the sheet or stone, and call it a day.  Your crust won’t get as nice and crispy on the bottom, but it will still be delicious.*

Mix 1 tablespoon olive oil and garlic in small bowl. Brush garlic oil over dough. Sprinkle 3/4 of green onions over, then top with potato slices and goat cheese. Toss asparagus and 1 tablespoon oil in medium bowl. Scatter asparagus over pizza. Sprinkle with Parmesan, then lightly with salt and generously with pepper.

Bake pizza until crust is browned and asparagus is tender, about 18 minutes. Transfer to cutting board. Sprinkle with remaining green onions. Cut into pieces.