When I told my boyfriend that I’m gonna make pizza with a potato, all I got was a massive side-eye. Mind you, I wasn’t talking about the paleo healthy idea of making pizza crust out of a potato – no, no, no! My plan was to slab some more carbs on top of the other carbs. Some googling showed that pizza (or focaccia) with potato and rosemary was quite a normal thing in Italy, so if Italians think this was a good idea, of course I was reassured.

I decided to make my own spin on the Italian classic (read: added bacon and cheese to the whole situation) and a delicious pizza bianca was born. Hooray!

INGREDIENTS:

(Yields 1 large pizza / 1.89 EUR)

For the dough:

½ tsp active dry yeast (0.07 EUR)

1 tsp sugar (0.01 EUR)

¾ cup warm water (–)

1 – ½ cup plain all-purpose flour, divided (0.07 EUR)

1 ½ cup whole wheat flour (0.13 EUR)

2 tbsp olive oil + more for greasing the bowl (0.10 EUR)

½ tsp salt (0.01 EUR)

For the pizza topping:

1 large potato (0.20 EUR)

1 cup grated cheese (0.67 EUR)

Pinch of salt (0.01 EUR)

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper (0.01 EUR)

1 tsp dried oregano (0.07 EUR)

3-4 thin slices of bacon (0.53 EUR)

Additional:

A bit of oil for greasing the baking tray (0.01 EUR)

METHOD:

To prepare the dough, first whisk together yeast, sugar, water and 1 tsp of plain flour in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 10-15 minutes until frothy. If the yeast mixture doesn’t become frothy, discard and start over with fresh batch of yeast because this means that your dough won’t rise either.

Add 1 cup of plain flour, all of whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp of olive oil and salt to the frothy yeast mixture and stir well with a spoon, until shabby dough forms. Dump everything onto clean flat surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, incorporating extra flour as necessary. The dough should be soft and pliable, but not sticky. Clean and oil your mixing bowl, turn the dough around to grease from all sides and cover the bowl with clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest for about 30 minutes, until doubled in size.

When ready to bake pizza, preheat oven to 250°C. Deflate the dough and stretch with your hands on a lightly greased baking tray. This doesn’t need to be perfect and completely even and just patch up any holes. I find that omitting the rolling pin, not only makes things easier and quicker, but also rends the fluffier and puffier finished pizza.

Grate the potato on a box grater and squeeze out any extra liquid. You can do that in a colander with just your hands or with a cheese cloth. Scatter shredded cheese on top of stretched pizza dough, top with potato shreds, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano. Finally, chop bacon slices into segments and distribute on top.

Bake pizza for 15 minutes in the middle rack, until blistered and crispy. Serve hot, or at room temperature as an antipasto.

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Kad sam svojem dečku rekla da namjeravam napraviti pizzu sa krumpirom, dobila sam pogled pun skepse. Naravno, nisam govorila o nekoj zdravoj paleo ideje da napravim tijesto za pizzu od krumpira – ne, ne ne! Moj je plan bio da natrpam još ugljikohidrata na druge ugljikohidrate. Malo guglanja pokazalo je da je pizza (ili focaccia) sa krumpirom i ružmarinom skroz normalna stvar u Italiji, pa ako Talijani misle da je to dobra ideja, ja sam bila uvjerena.

Odlučila sam dodati svoj štih u talijanski klasik (čitajte: ubacila sam špek i sir u cijelu priču) i jako fina pizza bianca je rođena. Hura!

SASTOJCI:

(Za 1 veliku pizzu / 13,88 kn)

Za tijesto:

½ žličice suhog kvasca (0,50 kn)

1 žličica šećera (0,01 kn)

¾ šalice tople vode (–)

1 – ½ šalice glatkog pšeničnog brašna, podijeljene (0,50 kn)

1 ½ šalica integralnog pšeničnog brašna (1,00 kn)

2 žlice maslinovog ulja + još malo za namastiti posudu (0,75 kn)

½ žličice soli (0,01 kn)

Dodaci za pizzu:

1 veliki krumpir (1,50 kn)

1 šalica naribanog sira (5,00 kn)

Prstohvat soli (0,01 kn)

Prstohvat svježe mljevenog crnog papra (0,05 kn)

1 žličica sušenog origana (0,50 kn)

3-4 tanke šnite špeka (4,00 kn)

Dodatno:

Malo ulja za namastiti protvan za pečenje (0,05 kn)

PRIPREMA:

Da bi ste napravili tijesto, prvo u velikoj zdjeli pomiješajte kvasac, šećer, toplu vodu i žličicu glatkog brašna. Pustite da miruje 10-15 minuta dok ne postane pjenasto. Ako mješavina do tada ne postane pjenasta, bacite i krenite ispočetka sa novom turom kvasca, jer vam se tijesto vjerovatno neće dignuti.

Dodajte u mješavinu kvasca 1 šalicu glatkog brašna, svo integralno brašno, 2 žlice maslinovog ulja i sol, pa miješajte žlicom dok se ne formira labavo tijesto. Sve iskrenite na čistu radnu plohu i mijesite 5-10 minute, a po potrebi dodajte još malo brašna. Tijesto treba biti mekano i podatno, ali se ne smije lijepiti. Očistite i nauljite svoju posudu, okrenite unutra tijesto da se namasti sa svih strana, pa prekrijte posudu čistom krpom. Ostavite tijesto da se diže oko 30 minuta, dok mu se veličina ne udvostruči.

Kada ste spremni za pečenje pizze, zagrijte pećnicu na 250°C. Ispuhnite tijesto i rukama ga rastegnite na lagano namašćenom protvanu. To ne mora biti savršeno i svugdje jednako, a rupe samo zakrpajte. Moj je dojam da se bez valjanja sa valjkom stvar pojednostavi i ubrza, a tijesto je na kraju u gotovoj pizzi puno prhkije i pufastije.

Naribajte krumpir i istisnite višak tekućine. To možete napraviti rukama u cjedilu, ili sa gazom. Raštrkajte naribani sir po rastegnutom tijestu, dodajte naribani krumpir, pa posipajte sa soli, paprom i origanom. Na kraju narežite špek na komade i raštrkajte po vrhu.

Pecite pizzu 15 minuta u sredini pećnice dok ne bude pufasta i hrskava. Poslužite vruću ili na sobnoj temperaturi kao predjelo.