Achievement: Potato Pizza

If you're not local you may be wondering what the hell is potato pizza?  I'm going to tell you right now it is delicious.  I am fortunate to grow up in an area with an absolutely amazing pizza place with the generic name of Antonio's that exists in this tiny shop space in the center of town.  A little bit on context about Antonio's from a business class I took in 2006:

• only one McDonald's in the US has ever been driven out of business, and that was the one next to Antonio's 
• their net profit exceeds $1 million
• they eliminated their advertising budget because they didn't need it

If you drive through town around last call they are the one business open with a line of customers going down the sidewalk.  For years they actually paid for the police officer who would stand by to keep people out of the streets (since then the sidewalk in front of Antonio's was expanded into the area of several parking spots and benches added).

So their pizza is tasty, they are wildly successful operating in a space that has table space for maybe 20 people, and they have some fantastic pizza options.  They've expanded a bit over the years, now with a handful of other locations (two in MA, one in RI, one in IL, and one in TX).  I'm still not sure how to deal with the fact that they have locations that resemble restaurants.

Potato Bacon is one of my favorite of their offerings (up there with Portabella Fresh Mozzarella Basil, BBQ Steak and Mushrooms, and Mac Attack), so I decided to see if I could make something similar in my own kitchen.

Now, my end result is not exact, but it turned out damn tasty.

The Supplies:

• 1 container of garlic & herb Boursin Spread
• 1 hunk of mozzarella
• pizza dough, ideally at room temperature
• 5 or so strips of bacon
• potatoes
• flour
• cookie sheet/pizza pan/pizza stone

The Process:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F
2. Clean kitchen counter because it probably needs it.  Once dry, dust counter and pan with flour.
3. Roll/work out dough to approximately the size and shape of your pan.  Remember that the dough is elastic and will shrink back a little and work it to slightly larger than the pan size and make it fit in pan.
4. Put dough in oven for ~10 minutes to partially cook.  Warning, dough might puff up and need popping.
5. Dice bacon
6. Slice potatoes thinly
7. Grate mozzarella (or even better, make your other half do it while you work on these other steps, that's what I did).
8. Dough is likely cooked enough, we're just trying to avoid soggy crust, remove from oven, let cool if necessary.
9. Use the Boursin Spread as your pizza sauce.
10. Sprinkle some of the mozzarella over the pizza
11. Cover pizza with your thinly-sliced potatoes
12. Anoint liberally with bacon.
13. Top off with more mozzarella
14. Put back in the oven for at least 20 minutes, poke at the potato slices with a fork to test if they are done.  Fork should go in cleanly without really any resistance, bacon should look cooked.

This came out pretty damn tasty.  I knew it would not match exactly for a number of reasons, including their menu lists a "butter sauce."  I used a Boursin Spread because it was airy enough to spread well and because Boursin is fantastic for making a lazy alfredo sauce.  I also should have let the crust pre-cook a little bit longer.  But while it doesn't match the original, I did create a tasty substitute.