Potato Cauliflower Pizza Crust & Great American GF Pizza Challenge

Who doesn’t love pizza? I know I love it. For a lot of reasons. It’s an easy and inexpensive meal for the family. It tastes good. It’s fun to meet with friends over pizza and a beer. Let’s face it—eating pizza is a beloved American pastime.

So, I will not give up on pizza simply because I can’t eat it in it’s original form. A great GF pizza is out there somewhere and I’ll find it. Some of you may already have already found yours. (And, if so, please share! See the GF Pizza Challenge below.) I am still searching.

My search has yielded some interesting finds. There’s a non-GF pizza that avoids yeast by using beer or club soda. And, then there’s one from Rustico Cooking who brings us a classic recipe from southern Italy. It’s not the least bit like our American pizza but it’s perfectly perfect because the main ingredient is potato and the recipe uses very little flour. Check it out: Pizza di Patate Pugilese (Tomato and Cheese Topped Potato Pizza). Finally, I came across a fascinating cauliflower pizza created for low-carb living.

As usual I played around with all these recipes and a few more. The idea of using potato and cauliflower intrigued me. It sounded like it would be good, healthy, and tasty. It seemed like it would be a fun kitchen challenge. And, it is and it was.

The result is a nice alternative to traditional pizza. Although it isn’t as stiff as a regular pizza it can be picked up and eaten with your hands if you like. The pizza shells can be frozen after the first baking to top and finish cooking at a later time. If you don’t have or want to use cauliflower you can always substitute another cup of potato and it will work just fine.

Potato Cauliflower Pizza Crust

2 cups potatoes, boiled and riced
1 cup cauliflower, roasted and chopped
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for the baking pan
1/2 cup gluten free flour (see below), plus extra for the counter
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water

Topping Options
2/3 cups tomato sauce
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano
1/2 cup roasted broccoli florets, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 350℉. Convection Roast works great for those of you with this oven setting.

Place the potatoes (about 3 large) in a pot. Add cool water enough to cover by an inch or two. Bring to a boil, reduce to a medium heat and cook about 30 minutes until tender when pierced with a knife. Drain, peel and pass through a ricer. Let cool to room temperature.

While the potatoes are boiling cut up the cauliflower (or use 8 ounces frozen cauliflower), spread out on a parchment lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. You can roast any other vegetables for toppings — broccoli, peppers, eggplant - at the same time. Pop into a 350℉ oven for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they are just getting brown.

Remove the vegetables and turn off the oven. When the oven is cool put the baking stone back in and preheat to 450°F. (Again, Convection Roast works best.)

Chop the cauliflower into a small mince or put into your food processor and process until it looks like it’s been coarsely chopped. You do not want it to look like mashed potatoes. (Prior to this step I like to press them in the ricer to extract any moisture. The large cauliflower pieces don’t go through the ricer holes but they compress and the water drains.)

Mix the potatoes, cauliflower, flour, salt and herbs in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water and mix in by hand to create a soft dough. Add more water, if needed, a little at a time to help the dough come together. You don’t want sticky dough. If this happens add a little flour.

At this point you can decide if you want one large pizza, 2 smaller ones, or 3 personal. Divide the dough accordingly.

Place the dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment. Flatten it into a disk, sprinkle with a little flour and cover with another piece of parchment. Roll it out with a rolling pin to the desired thickness. Thinner is probably better — around an 1/8 inch or so.

Peel off the top layer of parchment. Drizzle the top of the dough with a little olive oil. Pop it into the oven on top of the pizza stone keeping the bottom parchment paper in tact. This makes it much easier to work with. Bake about 8-10 minutes until you start to see it turning golden around the edges.

Remove from the oven, top with sauce and your other favorite toppings. Return to the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until brown around the edges. Serve hot. Serves 3 as a main course, 6-8 as an appetizer.

Flour mixture: 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 1/4 brown rice flour, 1/4 cup finely ground cornmeal, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum.

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The Great American GF Pizza Challenge

We all know there’s a great resource of GF (CF or dairy-free, no-eggs, no-yeast, etc.) chefs, cooks, bakers, moms, dads, teens, etc. out there who have great pizza recipes to share with the rest of us who are searching for a favorite! So, here’s your chance to wow us. Anything goes. I’m looking forward to the creativity and yuminess yet to come!

Please feel free to use “Post a Comment” below to tell us about your entry or add your recipe if you don’t have a blog or site. Thanks for sharing.

GF Pizza Challenge Participants

1. Mary Frances - gluten free pan pizza 2. Mary Frances - gluten free pizza crust

3. Annalise Roberts - pizza crust & link to brown rice flour mix 4. Dr. Jean Layton - GF Whole Grain Pizza

5. Kristen Campbell - gluten-free, casein-free, almond crust pizza

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Had to end the Mister Linky’s link tool due to technical issues. So, for now, if you have a GF Pizza recipe you’d like to share please leave a comment with a link to your recipe. Thanks!

Roasted & Wrapped Asparagus

Here’s the second recipe I “cooked” up for the Friday Foodie Fix on The W.H.O.L.E. Gang blog. I’ve never used Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese before. (I know, you can’t see the cream cheese but it’s in there.) To my surprise it worked remarkably well. The herbs, lemon, and balsamic vinegar provided the edge that was definitely needed to make this recipe work. And, the sun-dried tomatoes just seemed like a perfect accompaniment to the flavors of the asparagus and prosciutto.

This recipe is defintely more savory than the Asparagus Mango Salad but has the same saltiness and variety of flavors.

I think it would be great to use cream cheese or a cream cheese/goat cheese combination if you aren’t avoiding dairy or are avoiding soy. In fact, an easy option would be herbed goat chevre.

This is a very attractive and tasty appetizer to serve to family or friends.

Roasted & Wrapped Asparagus

12-15 asparagus spears
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

½ cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1 tablespoon dried basil
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon white balsamic vinegar
about 8 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
salt and pepper

½ pound prosciutto

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

Bring the “cream cheese” to room temperature. Mix in the basil, lemon zest, olive oil, vinegar, salt and a generous helping of pepper until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the diced sun-dried tomatoes. Return the mixture to the refrigerator.

Rinse and trim the asparagus. Place the spears one layer thick on the cookie sheet. Drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes until tender. Remove and cool – about 15-30 minutes.

Now you’ll start to assemble the prosciutto, cheese and asparagus. Take one piece of prosciutto at a time. Trim the top and bottom and any fat from the meat. If the prosciutto piece is large you may be able to get two pieces out of it – each piece need only be about 3 or 4 inches in length.

Take about 1 to 2 teaspoons of the “cheese” mixture and spread it about an inch from the edge along the short end of the prosciutto. Place the asparagus on the cheese and begin wrapping the short end of the prosciutto over the asparagus continuing to the end of the prosciutto. Wrap each of the asparagus spears the same way.

Place the wrapped spears on a serving plate and return to the refrigerator until ready to serve. These can be made any time during the day they are to be served.

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