Authentic Italian Potato Pizza is one of the most surprisingly delicious pizzas I’ve ever tasted. Have you ever had potato pizza? If not, don’t wait any longer!
I know what you’re thinking…carbs on carbs, right? Well, have Italians ever been wrong when it comes to food?
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Strange pizza topping?
I’m going to ask you to trust me on this one, because I had the same trepidation the first time I ever saw a potato pizza in Italy. It looked so “blah” and boring, that I was not tempted in the slightest. This is despite the fact that I’m a huge potato fan. I was much more interested in the traditional tomato topped pizzas, but little did I know that I was really missing out on one of Italy’s best creations.
Disclosure: I was compensated by The Idaho Potato Commission for this post, and as always, all opinions are solely my own.
I don’t actually recall when I first tried potato pizza, but I know it was when I was in Rome, probably when I was 19 or 20 years old. It was truly eye-opening. No longer could I simply judge how something would taste, simply because I knew how the different ingredients tasted separately!
Potato pizza has such fabulous flavor. I am not exaggerating when I tell you you will most likely be shocked at how good it tastes. As always, the quality of ingredients is key. You won’t get this delicious flavor by using the wrong potatoes or inexpensive olive oil. As I always say, you really have to use top quality ingredients, more so when there are a minimal of ingredients, such as in this pizza.
I use top quality extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and yellow (or gold) Idaho® Potatoes, which is really the kind of waxy potato that is necessary for this pizza to turn out correctly. Use the best quality ingredients and you’ll end up with a fabulous tasting pizza.
Most Italian pizzas are not unhealthy!
Also, please remember that this type of pizza is actually a very healthy and nutritious pizza~
-no sugar -no hydrogenated oils -only healthy fat (extra virgin olive oil) -no processed, chemical and
preservative filled dough -dairy and cholesterol free (if not using cheese) -all the health benefits of
potatoes -vegetarian -vegan (if not using cheese) -potatoes are baked, not fried
And homemade pizza with tomato sauce isn’t unhealthy, either!
In fact, when you make pizza the real Italian way, many things will change. For example, did you know that you should never use tomato paste or cook your pizza sauce! Find out how to make proper pizza sauce here.
Authentic Italian Potato Pizza (Pizza con Patate)
with Yellow Idaho® Potatoes
recipe by Christina Conte Full printable recipe below
Potato pizzas are traditionally make in rectangular pans, but you can use any shape you like. Oil your pan slightly with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
Prepare the dough
Shape the dough into the shape of your pan, then place the dough onto it. Drizzle about a tablespoon or more of extra virgin olive oil and rub it over the surface evenly. Leave in a draft-free place for a few minutes while you prepare the potatoes.
Preheat the oven at this point, to 500˚F (260˚C) or the hottest your oven can be set. Do not use convection.
Prepare the potatoes
Using a mandoline slicer or food processor, slice the washed and dried yellow Idaho© potatoes (do not peel) very thinly and place in a bowl. I love my OXO mandoline slicer.
Add enough extra virgin olive oil to coat each slice (2-3 tbsp), then sprinkle lightly with the salt. Using your hands, mix the potatoes so they are evenly coated with oil and salt.
Optional: sometimes, mozzarella cheese is added at this point, but if you do, do so sparingly. I didn’t add cheese.
Top the dough with the potatoes
Start layering the potato slices over the pizza dough in the pan, overlapping the slices slightly until all the dough is covered. Unlike a traditional tomato pizza, you don’t need to leave an edge. I did so for the sake of the photos, or else the pizza would just look like slices of potatoes, but I’d recommend going all the way to the edge and will explain why, below).
Drizzle with another 1 tsp or so, extra virgin olive oil. Spread carefully and evenly over the potatoes with your fingertips or a brush.
Optional: sprinkle the some fresh rosemary, if desired (I added rosemary to one half of my pizza).
Bake the potato pizza
Place pizza on the floor of the oven, or if you aren’t able to use the bottom, put it on the lowest rack, for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, move the pizza onto the middle shelf of the oven. Bake for another 8 to 11 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to brown.
If desired, reset the oven to broil (grill) and place the pizza on the top rack to make the potatoes a little more brown and crispy. This is the reason it’s best to place the potatoes all the way to the edge of the dough and not leave any exposed crust.
If you do this, you don’t have to worry about the crust burning while you crisp the potatoes.
Remove the potato pizza from the oven and cut into slices; serve hot, warm or cold. This pizza reheats really well, just place it back on a tray into a 400˚F (205˚C) oven for about 4 minutes.
This pizza is so delicious, you won’t even want to think about how you’ve been missing out all these years!
Remember I asked if Italians have ever gotten the food wrong? Well, if the people who are responsible for creating all of this, also invented potato pizza, need I say anything more?
Buon appetito!
Please don’t let the length of the instructions intimidate you because half of the text is my tips, recommendations and/or optional steps.
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Authentic Italian Potato Pizza (Pizza con Patate) with Yellow Idaho® Potatoes
Thinly sliced potato is baked onto light, pizza dough to create an unimaginably good and unique pizza which is very popular in Italy.
Ingredients
- 1 lb pizza dough (if making my (search "my mother's favorite pizza") recipe, plan ahead 12-18 hrs or you can use your own recipe or bread machine) this recipe will also make more than a pound of dough, so you’ll have a little leftover
- 4 to 5 yellow Idaho® potatoes
- 4 to 5 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil (I like De Cecco)
- 1 to 1 1/2 tsp Kosher or sea salt, more or less to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste (optional)
- a sprig of fresh rosemary (optional)
- 6 to 8 oz of fresh mozzarella (optional)
Instructions
- Potato pizzas are traditionally make in rectangular pans, but you can use any shape you like. Oil your pan slightly, with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
- Shape the dough into the shape of your pan, then place the dough onto it, drizzle about a tablespoon or more, extra virgin olive oil and rub it over the surface evenly, then set in a draft-free place for a few minutes while you prepare the potatoes.
- Preheat the oven at this point, to 500˚F (260˚C) or the hottest your oven can be set. Do not use convection.
- Using a mandoline slicer or food processor, slice the washed and dried yellow Idaho© potatoes (do not peel) very thinly and place in a bowl.
- Add enough extra virgin olive oil to coat each slice (2-3 tbsp), then sprinkle lightly with the salt. Using your hands, mix the potatoes so they are evenly coated with oil and salt.
- Optional: sometimes, mozzarella cheese is added at this point, but if you do, do so sparingly (I didn’t add cheese).
- Start layering the potato slices over the pizza dough in the pan, overlapping the slices slightly until all the dough is covered (unlike a traditional tomato pizza, you don’t need to leave an edge of dough; I did so for the sake of the photos, or else the pizza would just look like slices of potatoes, but I’d recommend going all the way to the edge and will explain why, below).
- Drizzle with another 1 tsp or so, extra virgin olive oil and spread carefully and evenly over the potatoes, with your hand or a brush.
- Optional: sprinkle the some fresh rosemary, if desired (I did add rosemary to one half of my pizza).
- Place pizza on the floor of the oven, or if you aren’t able to use the bottom, put it on the lowest rack, for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, replace the pizza onto the middle of the oven for another 8 to 11 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to brown. If desired, reset the oven to broil (grill) and place the pizza on the top rack to make the potatoes a little more brown and crispy (this is why it’s best to place the potatoes all the way to the edge of the dough, and not leave any exposed crust, so that you don’t have to worry about the crust burning while you crisp the potatoes).
- Remove from the oven and cut into slices and serve hot, warm or cold.
- This pizza reheats really well, just place it back on a tray into a 400˚F (205˚C) oven for about 4 minutes.
Notes
Prep time includes overnight rise for the no knead dough.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 2 slicesAmount Per Serving:Calories: 219Total Fat: 9gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 0mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 5g
I was sponsored by The Idaho® Potato Commission to create this recipe, however, I only promote items I use and truly believe in.
Christina’s Cucina is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
So the potato starts out raw? You don’t need to boil them first?
Yes, no need to boil. Delicious!
Easy, Simple and delicious one, will love to try this one. Thanks for sharing this one.
Love this simple and perfect ” Italian Potato Pizza” , actually my hubby love simple stuff, thanks for sharing this one.
Its looks perfect, simple and delicious , will love to try this one . thanks for sharing this stuff.
Thank you Christina, for this wonderful dough recipe. It is indeed worthwhile.
I made the potato pizza today, it turned out exactly as showed in your pictures (except the rosemary which is not my favorite). The bread tasted very good, but the topping tasted a tad flat. I don’t think it was lack of salt, more like lack of flavor in the potato.
Anyway, thanks much once more. If you have any suggestions how to make this more flavorsome (excluding adding bacon, cheese and the like), do let me know.
Hi Yani, I would agree with you, it’s probably the potato that is the issue. Maybe if you can find some local grown, organic potatoes? Not sure what else to suggest, unless you replace the rosemary with an herb you like. Good luck!
You could try gently heating your olive oil(low heat) on the stove with a cracked glove of garlic for about 15 minutes, then remove the garlic. Toss the potatoes with 1/2 the oil and any other spices you like, such as oregano, thyme and crushed red pepper. Use the other 1/2 of oil on crust and add more to top of potatoes once you place them on the pizza.
My daughter loved the flavor of this, but the potatoes just popped off the crust. Next time I will add cheese so they stick. Also I am going with way more spices next time.
We made this tonight and had a ton of potatoes left over. We used the thinnest slice possible on my mandoline, and are wondering now if we should have done more than one layer of potatoes. I would have enjoyed more potatoes on it. We made your mom’s crust which was very good – I’d added a little extra water last night when mixing it, because it seemed too dry. So my main question is how many layers of paper-thin potatoes do you put on your pizza? We will be making this again.
Our solution for a crispy crust is to use a mesh pizza pan. It’s a pain to clean, but the bottom is crisp. Because our mesh pans are smaller than this called for, and because I always try to follow directions for the first time I make something, we didn’t use it for this, and instead, just moved the pan as you described.
Hi Dessie, first of all, kudos to you for making it as written the first time. That is what I always recommend, and then make substitutions and changes after you know what you’re working with.
Regarding the potatoes, there are a few things to consider. Your potatoes could be larger than the ones I used? Did your slices look the same as the ones in my photos? Maybe they were too thin? As you can see, I overlapped mine, but I wouldn’t recommend making multiple layers. I think the photos will be most helpful in this situation, as you can try to recreate what you see there. Try your mesh pan next time and see if you like it better. Glad you liked it and will make it again! Let me know how it goes next time! CC
Thank you Christina for your speedy response! It’s likely that my potatoes were both larger, and more thinly sliced than yours. I did overlap as you suggested. My friend who got me started on this journey said that her partner sliced them thicker than I did. Mine were as thin as my mandoline would do them – they were translucent. I’m thinking something closer to 1/8″ or maybe a little thinner would both give me the proportion of potatoes my mouth wants (lol), and will still cook through.
BTW, I LOVE your mom’s pizza dough recipe! My standby has been a whole-wheat recipe from a friend that I make in my bread machine, but I think your mother’s is going to become a part of my repertoire for those times when I think ahead enough to have time for it to rise! I was amazed that it only called for 1/4 tsp of yeast, but it worked! Thank you so much for these wonderful recipes!