Easy Vegan Pan Pizza With Potato, Onion, and Rosemary Recipe

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated March 11, 2022
Potato pan pizza on a wooden surface.

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Why It Works

  • Using both sliced potatoes and mashed potatoes adds deep potato flavor and textural contrast.
  • Onions, rosemary, and olive oil complement and enhance the flavor of the potatoes.

The base of this pie starts out a lot like the fantastic potato-topped pizza bianca that was once served at Sullivan Street Bakery: thin slices of potato shingled on top of a moist pizza bianca dough, strewn with onions, and drizzled with olive oil. As it bakes, the potatoes crisp up and the onions brown, lending some sweetness and a bit of bite to the affair.

A sprinkle of rosemary always works with potatoes, in my opinion.

Two uncooked potato pizzas in side-by-side cast iron pans, with the rightmost pizza being topped with mashed potato by a pair of hands.

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

The raw slices of potato cook nicely and are moderately creamy inside, but I longed for even more smooth richness, so I decided to take a page out of the playbook of the New Haven nightclub and pizzeria, Bar. The pizzeria is famous for its thin crusted pies, and in particular their mashed potato pizza. It sounds strange on paper, but what you actually get there is a thin crust topped with creamy, chunkily-mashed potatoes that crisp up around the edges.

To take this effect to the extreme, I dolloped on olive oil-enhanced mashed potatoes in irregular clumps. As the pizza cooked, the clumps harden and brown on the exterior, almost like a perfect roast potato, but with a creamy, olive oil-scented interior.

A side view of a slice of potato pizza showing off the texture of the cooked dough and toppings.

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

February 2013

Recipe Details

Easy Vegan Pan Pizza With Potato, Onion, and Rosemary Recipe

Active 30 mins
Total 10 hrs 30 mins
Serves 4 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe foolproof pan pizza (dough only), or 1 1/2 pounds store-bought pizza dough

  • 1 pound (455g) Yukon Gold potatoes (about 3 medium)

  • Kosher salt

  • 1/2 cup (120ml) extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 small yellow onion (5 ounces; 140g), thinly sliced

  • 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves

  • Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Divide dough into two equal balls. Pour 2 tablespoons (30ml) of oil in the bottom of each of two 10-inch cast iron skillet or round cake pans. Place 1 ball of dough in each pan and turn to coat evenly with oil. Using a flat palm, press the dough around the pan, flattening it slightly and spreading oil around the entire bottom and edges of the pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough sit at room temperature for two hours. After the first hour, adjust an oven rack to the lower middle position and preheat oven to 550°F.

    A hand pressing down on a ball of pizza dough inside of a cast iron pan.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  2. While dough rises, make mashed potatoes. Peel and roughly dice one potato and cover with salted water in a medium saucepan. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and pass potato through ricer, returning to now-empty pot. Add 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and fold with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Set mashed potatoes aside.

    Mashed potatoes being held above a stainless steel pan by a wooden spoon.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  3. Meanwhile, using a mandoline, slice remaining two potatoes into 1/8th-inch thick slices. Transfer slices to a large bowl filled with water. When all potatoes are sliced, drain and rinse, then carefully dry slices in a salad spinner or with paper towels. Return to bowl, add onions, 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil, and rosemary, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and set aside.

    Waxy potatoes being sliced on a white plastic mandoline.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  4. After dough has risen for two hours, dough should be mostly filling in the pan up to the edges. Use your fingertips to press it around until it fills in every corner, popping any large bubbles that appear. Lift up one edge of the dough to let any air bubbles underneath escape and repeat, moving around the dough until there are no air bubbles left underneath and the dough is evenly spread around the pan.

    Two cast iron pans side by side containing pizza dough, with the rightmost pan having the dough spread out by a set of hands.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  5. Layer potatoes slices on top of pizzas, letting some onion pieces cling to them and shingling them to make a pretty pattern. Add any remaining onion slices, rosemary, and drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons oil (30ml) on top of pizzas. Use a small spoon to add mashed potatoes to top of pizzas in 1-inch dollops.

    Two cast iron pans side by side containing the prepped but unbaked pizzas.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  6. Bake until potatoes are browned around the edges, mashed potatoes are crisp and browned, and bottom of pizzas is a crisp golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

    A potato pizza cut into wedges on a wooden cutting board.

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Special Equipment

Two 10-inch cast iron skillets or cake pans, ricer

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
795Calories
36gFat
105gCarbs
14gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories795
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 36g46%
Saturated Fat 5g23%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 937mg41%
Total Carbohydrate 105g38%
Dietary Fiber 6g22%
Total Sugars 6g
Protein 14g
Vitamin C 13mg65%
Calcium 48mg4%
Iron 6mg34%
Potassium 799mg17%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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