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Pizza di Patate (Potato Pizza)

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December 19, 2018

I remember it clearly!  My love affair with Pizza di Patate began May 1992 in Rome.

All of my most favorite foods are carbohydrates:  pasta, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, pierogi, soft pretzels, and homemade bread, among them.  The favorites among my favorites, though, combine two different carbohydrates in the same dish:  potato gnocchi, bubba (and its relative, potato pancakes), potato pierogi, homemade bread rolls stuffed with mashed potatoes and rubbed with olive oil and garlic, and, of course, potato pizza.

When I first tasted potato pizza in Rome it immediately entered the highest level of my carbohydrate pantheon.  I knew at some point I would need to learn to make it as I had never had anything like it in the States.  I still haven’t unless it’s come out of my pizza oven, though there is a new breed of Roman Pizzerias cropping up around the country dangling the possibility that one, serving pizza di patate, might settle in near where I live.

May of 1992 was the month my (now) husband and I were to celebrate our fifth anniversary.  I had been discussing with John Bowker, a friend, Anglican priest and the dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, coming to the UK for our anniversary.  John had offered to perform a wedding ceremony (still not legally binding, of course) following the Anglican rite in the Trinity College Chapel with the Trinity College Choir there to sing.

After much thought, we decided against going to Cambridge for the ceremony.  Although a few of our friends might have attended, we felt that most would not and we wanted to be surrounded by friends on that day.

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We opted, instead, to have a ceremony performed at our house by John Fortunato, a friend and Episcopal deacon.  We had a calligrapher record our vows on parchment and signed by everyone present (in a nod to Quaker tradition) as an affirmation of our commitment to each other.

Invitation to our fifth anniversary and commitment ceremony

On our 25th anniversary, in 2012, we were actually married with 52 of our friends in attendance.  The wedding and reception were held in a private dining room at Del Posto in New York City.  But I digress…

In the early 1990’s Frank, my husband, and I were working full time but also attending Loyola University of Chicago studying for MBA degrees.  Loyola decided to offer MBA classes for the first time at its Rome campus in May 1992.  We jumped at the chance, leaving for Rome the day after our commitment ceremony.  We treated the trip like the honeymoon we had never had though by then we were very experienced world travelers.

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A pleasant walk from the Loyola Campus (located in an old convent in Monte Mario) was a small shop that sold prepared Roman food and a dizzying array of pizza by the slice (pizza al taglio).  Most nights we went there for dinner then went back to our dorm room to study.  The shop had a few stools lined up along a narrow counter on one side but every patron, except us, picked up food to go.

A funny moment during our wedding ceremony in 2012

After a few days, our routine became clear to the shop owners.  As soon as we walked through the doorway, without asking a question, one of them reached for a bottle of local red wine and handed it to us.  We then ordered from the food on display and sat at the counter enjoying a wonderful meal.

Theirs was the first pizza di patate that I’d ever had.  I ate it all over Rome on that trip.

It took me at least five years to try to make it, and at least another five years to perfect it.  Now that we have a wood-burning oven in Santa Fe I almost always make at least one potato pizza on pizza nights (which don’t happen nearly often enough!).

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 Pizza di Patate (Potato Pizza)
I first tasted this in Rome in 1992 and fell in love with it. There are numerous variations, such as using potatoes that have been shredded on the teardrop shaped holes of a grater or topping the pizza with cheese. This simple version is my favorite. Making the pizza in a rectangular pan most resembles Roman pizza al taglio. The dough can be divided to make two round pizzas approximately 12 inches in diameter. See the Notes section for instructions on making the dough in a bread machine as well as directions for making the dough in advance. You can use bread flour if you wish but the dough will be really springy from the gluten making it a bit more difficult to stretch out. If using bread flour it is really a good idea to refrigerate the dough as described below.
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Course Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 65 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Course Pizza, Flatbreads, and Savory Tarts
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 65 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Dough
Topping
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Warm the bowl and dough hook of an electric mixer with hot water. Drain and dry.
  2. Add the warm water and yeast to warmed bowl. Blend briefly.
  3. Allow the yeast and water to sit until creamy, approximately 10 minutes.
  4. Add about half the flour and mix to combine.
  5. With the motor running, add salt and drizzle in olive oil. Mix to combine.
  6. Add the remaining flour.
  7. Mix approximately 8-10 minutes after all the flour is added. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.
  8. Place the dough in an oiled bowl or container. Oil the top of the dough. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until doubled.
  9. Meanwhile, make the flavored oil. Sauté the bruised garlic in the oil over medium-low heat until light golden. Do not allow the garlic to turn brown.
  11. Allow the oil to cool for a few minutes. Add the rosemary. The oil should be warm to release the flavor of the rosemary but not so hot that the rosemary begins to sizzle.
  12. Allow the oil and rosemary to sit at room temperature to cool. When cool, remove and discard the garlic.
  13. When dough has doubled, punch it down to remove all air pockets.
  14. Using olive oil, oil an 11x17 inch rimmed baking sheet.
  15. Press the dough into the pan. Allowing the dough to rest for five or ten minutes midway through pressing it into the pan will allow the gluten to relax making it easier to shape the dough.
  16. Brush the dough lightly with some of the flavored olive oil.
  17. Cover the dough with an inverted rimmed baking sheet and allow it to rise until doubled.
  18. Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes and slice into very thin slices. A mandoline is best. If so, set it for 1/16 inch.
  20. Cover the potato slices with cool water to remove excess starch and to keep them from turning brown.
  21. When the dough has doubled, dry the potato slices thoroughly and put them on the top of the dough in a single layer that is slightly overlapping. You may have potato slices left over.
  22. Brush the top of the pizza with the remaining flavored olive oil and sprinkle liberally with coarse sea salt.
  23. Bake at 425°F for approximately 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and have golden edges and the dough is golden brown on the edges.
Recipe Notes

The dough can be made, with good results, in a bread machine on the dough cycle.  Though I don’t add sugar when making the dough by hand or with a mixer, the shorter rise cycles used by a bread machine work better with sugar.  Put the ingredients, above, into your bread machine following the manufacturers directions adding 1 tablespoon of sugar as well.  When the dough cycle is finished, press the dough into a pan, as described above, or refrigerate as described below.

If I have time, I prefer to make the dough a day or two in advance. After it has risen as described above, put the dough in an oiled container with a tight-fitting lid. Oil the top of the dough and refrigerate. Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least 5 hours before you plan on making the pizza. Punch down the dough just before making the pizza and proceed as above.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs

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February 9, 2018

These meatballs are really mystical if you consider the sway they hold on my husband, his brother, and his father.  They go wild for these meatballs.

Well, wild in that very restrained Northern Italian way.

If they were Southern Italian, where a dinner conversation can seem like a minor riot, their meatball response would barely register on the scale.  It would signal almost utter disregard for the meatballs.

But that, in fact, is not the case.  The meatballs hold some sort of magical, mystical charm.

Marisa, of course, is my mother-in-law and these are her meatballs.  She considers them quite unusual, having learned to make them from her mother and basically not remembering any other relatives or friends making something similar.

And, as meatballs, they ARE unusual!

An old-fashioned ricer is still an indispensable piece of kitchen equipment. Make sure yours is very sturdy. Many new ones are not.

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But here’s a secret that I haven’t told anyone yet.  They really AREN’T meatballs.  They’re croquettes!  Crocchette in Italian.

There, I said it.  Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs aren’t really meatballs.  But everybody in the family calls them “Ma’s Meatballs.”  “Ma’s Croquettes” doesn’t have the same alliterative allure, even if it’s more accurate.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law celebrating his birthday.

When I did a Google search for crocchette, Google turned up about 1,730,000 results in 0.51 seconds.  When I searched for crocchette patate e carne (potato and meat croquettes), Google returned 1,500,000 results in 0.72 seconds.

And that was doing searches in Italian!

I found a Japanese woman who seems to have the same relationship to her mother’s meat and potato croquettes (korokke) as my husband and his family have to his mother’s.

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The meat for these “meatballs” (a word I’ll use in deference to my husband and his family of origin) is boiled before being finely chopped.  This presents a perfect opportunity to make a really nice beef broth.  You don’t have to do that, of course, but since you’re going to be boiling the meat anyhow, and since it only takes a few extra minutes to throw some aromatics into the pot, why not!

The broth from the meat for the specific batch of meatballs shown in this blog is sitting in the freezer ready to be turned into Auntie Helen’s Stracciatella, which will be coming up on the blog next month.

If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen Bertha’s Flan or Melinda’s Drunken Prunes, take a look.  They will give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

 

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 Marisa's Mystical Meatballs
Marisa says she usually uses cross-cut beef shank for the meatballs. When we made them, she also had a piece of beef she bought for soup so we used both. In the end, we got ½ pound of cooked beef, with fat and gristle removed. Adjust the proportion of the other ingredients if you get substantially more or less cooked beef. If you want to use just cross-cut beef shank, I would try about 2 ½-3 lbs. The beef is boiled and then finely chopped to make the meatballs, giving you the opportunity to make a really nice beef broth with just a few minutes more work.
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Course Appetizers and Nibbles, Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Servings
meatballs
Ingredients
Beef and Broth
Meatballs
Course Appetizers and Nibbles, Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Servings
meatballs
Ingredients
Beef and Broth
Meatballs
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Beef and Broth
  1. Cross-cut beef shank.
  2. Put the meat and all other broth ingredients in a large stock pot.
  3. Cover with abundant cold water.
  4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 4-6 hours, until the meat is very tender.
  5. Remove and cool the beef.
  6. Strain the broth and reserve for another use.
Meatballs
  1. Remove fat, gristle and bone from beef. You should have approximately ½ pound of cooked beef.
  2. Cook the unpeeled potatoes in boiling water until you can easily pierce them with the tines of a long fork or paring knife, 20-25 minutes.
  3. Remove the potatoes from the water and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, mince the garlic or grate it on a microplane grater.
  5. Combine beef, parsley and garlic in a food processor. Process until finely chopped.
  6. Peel the slightly cooled potatoes. If they are too cool it will be difficult to rice them.
  7. Pass the potatoes through a ricer.
  8. Combine the beef mixture with the potatoes, nutmeg, allspice, salt and black pepper.
  9. Mix well with a large spoon or your hands.
  10. Add the lightly beaten eggs.
  11. Mix well using your hands.
  14. Form the mixture into 16 balls and then flatten them slightly.
  15. Lightly roll the meatballs in fine dry breadcrumbs.
  17. Pour ⅛ inch of oil into a large sauté pan.
  18. Heat the oil on medium-high heat.
  19. Fry the meatballs in two batches, on medium-high, flipping once, until brown.
  20. Drain on paper towels.
  21. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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