If you are regular viewer of the 5 o’clock rush especially on Instagram, you will notice that I like to include a starch with my daily dinners. This could be rice, pasta, bread and especially potatoes.
So when I had this awesome opportunity to create a unique potato recipe using The Little Potato Company ® I was more than thrilled.
The great features about these potatoes are:
- Proprietary potatoes – grown to full maturity
- Available year-round and always in stock
- Even cooking time
- High quality – grown with care and hand-sorted
- Fresh – straight from the farm
- Quick – pre-washed, no peeling, no waste or extra prep
- Nutritious – fat, gluten, and cholesterol free
- Thin skinned – excellent source of potassium
- Easy to prepare – roast, microwave, oven, BBQ
- Great plate appeal
I received two of The Little Potato Company ® varieties:
Something Blue ™ has a unique, beautiful contrast of colours – yellow flesh with purple streaks, and bright blue/purple skin. Something Blue delivers a well-balanced, slightly exotic flavour that has great colour retention, and is excellent for roasting or barbecuing.
Blushing Belle ™ is extremely versatile, and adapts well to a variety of cooking methods. Named after its blushing red skin and buttery yellow flesh, Blushing Belle delivers a soft, light texture with mild, delicate flavor. Excellent roasted or mashed.
The Little Potato Company ® potatoes are also available in a MICROWAVE READY varieties.
Providing freshly steamed, perfectly seasoned potatoes in just minutes, Microwave Ready kits are all about making wholesome and delicious that much easier. Simply microwave in the conveniently included steam tray, toss with the precisely pre-mixed seasoning and voila – full-on flavour the whole family will love. The only hard part will be deciding which flavour to try first!
My ‘chef’ thinking cap came up with this recipe for A Loaded ‘Baked’ Potato Pizza.
Some of the components of a Loaded Baked Potato that I enjoy are bacon, chives, broccoli and loads of cheese or cheese sauce put on another favourite of mine…..PIZZA! And then add sour cream for dipping.
I decided to make a homemade crust for this recipe. The pizza crust recipe is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Ree Drummond who is an adventurous and creative food blogger. Ree’s recipe below is better made ahead at least 24 hours in advance. But it is super easy and very user-friendly.
There is always the option to use a store-bought pizza crust or even Naan bread.
My Favorite Pizza from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Makes 2 Crusts
Mise En Place
- 1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast
- 4 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low-speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.
Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it.
*** It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.
Cheddar Cheese Sauce
Mise En Place
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup extra old Cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 cup Herb cheese
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- ½ tsp. Red Hot sauce
In saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; whisk in flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese, salt, pepper, and Red Hot until cheese is melted.
There is a new cheese sauce available on your grocery store shelves, which can be used in a pinch.
Loaded ‘Baked’ Potato Pizza
Mise En Place
- Pizza Dough recipe above, halved
- 1 cup favourite pizza or tomato sauce
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese sauce, recipe above
- 2 cups mozzarella, grated
- 6 The Little Potato Company ® Blushing Belles potatoes™, cooked and sliced
- 6 The Little Potato Company ® Something Blues potatoes™, cooked and sliced
- 1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
- 4 slices bacon, cooked and cut into pieces
- 4 green onions, cleaned and sliced on the bias
- 2 tbsp. fresh chives
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
NOTE: I cooked The Little Potato Company ® Blushing Belles potatoes™ and The Little Potato Company ® Something Blues potatoes ™ for 9 minutes as I wanted to ensure that the potatoes remain the ‘circle’ shape. 😉
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Drizzle olive oil on a large baking sheet using HALF the pizza dough, and lightly coat the dough with a little olive oil and lightly flour both sides. Pull and stretch on the dough, working it into a thin rectangle shape. No rolling necessary; the dough will be very thin, which is what you are looking for. The dough is very forgiving, if a hole or tear develops in the crust just pinch to seal.
Once you achieve the desire size and rectangle shape lightly drizzle some olive oil over the crust using your fingers to spread it all over the dough.
Coat the pizza dough with the pizza or tomato based sauce and cheddar cheese sauce leaving a ½ inch border for a crust.
Sprinkle with mozzarella.
Add The Little Potato Company ® Blushing Belles potatoes™ slices and The Little Potato Company ® Something Blues potatoes™ slices alternately as you would pepperoni.
Add the remaining toppings of bacon, broccoli, and green onions.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly. Remove from pan. Sprinkle with fresh chopped chives.
Slice with a pizza cutter. Serve with sour cream for dipping.
TIP: Use your kitchen shears to cut the cooked bacon and to finely cut the fresh chives.
The Loaded ‘Baked’ Potato Pizza was a hit with the family especially with the sour cream for dipping.
All of the toppings including The Little Potato Company ® potatoes could be the leftovers from a previous dinner. The other crust was made into a traditional pepperoni and cheese pizza.
All views are my own. I was contacted by @LittlePotatoCompany to write my honest review about their products. The 5 o’clock rush was not paid to write this post.