Pizza night is always a favorite and with store-bought dough, I've made this recipe so simple and delicious. It might sounds weird to put sweet potatoes on a pizza, but I am here to tell you this is a winning combination. I've done the leg work so you don't have to. There are only 8 ingredients in this sweet potato pizza and it's pretty easy to put together.
Sweet Potatoes on Top of Pizza? What?
I absolutely love sweet potatoes. I love them baked with a dollop of sour cream. Cutting them into cubes and roasting with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slicing into strips for sweet potato French fries - to die for. And for this sweet potato pizza, slicing into thin strips and then into thirds makes for an eclectic topping on this gourmet pizza.
I will admit this is an homage to one of the best slices of pizza I've ever eaten. When I try to recreate a recipe, I make a list of the ingredients I know to be in the dish. Then another list of things I think might be in it, but can't quite tell. Then I start testing the recipe. I love when a pizza is topped with a cheese I wouldn't normally have thought of. Or ingredients that sound like they couldn't work, but somehow do. When I saw slices of sweet potato pizza for sale years ago at one of my favorite bakeries - I HAD to get that. It stayed on my brain for years until I finally tried to make it myself.
For this sweet potato pizza: go with smoked cheddar
The first time I made this pizza as practice, I couldn't find smoked cheddar cheese so I used smoked gouda. The second time I made it for this video I couldn't find smoked gouda, but could find smoked cheddar. Honestly, either cheese is awesome. One tip: read the label of smoked cheddar carefully. You want the one that says "smoked cheddar." I don't think maple smoked cheddar or bacon smoked cheddar would be good on this pizza. Certain "flavored" cheese often have a strange aftertaste that I don't care for. My advice is to stick with the smoked cheddar and if you can't find that go for the smoked gouda.
Sweet Potato Pizza Night (plus leftovers for lunches!)
I cook with leftovers in mind because it's so easy to do. If I'm making one pizza, it's just as easy to make two. There's plenty left over for lunch and then some. If we don't eat all of the second one (lol), I put it in the freezer for another night when we don't feel like cooking. I freeze them in packs of two slices. So convenient for later.
The dough. It's store bought and you do need to let it sit out for a bit before trying to roll it. Ideally, as mentioned in my BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe, you'd let it sit out over night (covered) and roll it out the next day. However, I realize we don't all have time to let dough sit out overnight. That being said, please try to give it an hour or two in an olive-oiled bowl in a warm room. Then, flour up that cutting board and roll it into whatever shape you want. I'm partial to rectangle or oval pizzas because they fit well on my sheet pans. Making a round pizza always feels kind of high maintenance - more rolling is involved.
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Sweet Potato Pizza w/Smoked Cheddar, Rosemary & Garlic Oil
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 pizzas (8 slices each) 1x
Description
Pizza night just got a little better with this sweet potato pizza topped with smoked cheddar, rosemary, garlic oil and an easy homemade sauce.
Ingredients
NOTE: Prep time doesn't include the time for the dough to sit out and rise.
Garlic oil (see notes)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes (plain, no Italian seasonings)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
Pizza
- 2 store-bought pizza doughs
- Fresh rosemary
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 2 7-ounce packages of smoked cheddar or smoked gouda cheese
- salt
Instructions
- Take both doughs out of their packaging. Olive oil two large bowls, place the dough in the bowls and cover (paper towel or saran wrap). Ideally, leaving the dough out overnight is great and gives it a nice rise and awesome flavor. But if you can’t do that, an hour or two works too. Just make sure the room is warm.
- Make the garlic oil. Finely dice 2 cloves of garlic, put in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Just use a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Give it a mix and set aside for later. You'll have more than you need. See notes for additional uses.
- Make the sauce. Finely dice 2 cloves of garlic. (Note: if you want to chop all your garlic at the same time – go for it.) Heat a pan on low to medium heat, add garlic and cook until fragrant – a minute or two. Strain the liquid from the tomatoes and add them to the pan. (You can use regular or unsalted – nothing with dried spices in it). Add about ½ teaspoon of salt and stir. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Near the end, use your spatula or potato masher and press down on the tomatoes and mash them. Remove from heat and let cool down a bit.
- Chop your rosemary. You need about 2 tablespoons finely chopped.
- Cut the sweet potatoes - one for each pizza. Sweet potatoes are wildly different in size so you might have some left over. That being said, if you watch the video it shows the cutting size really well. Basically, you’ll cut the sweet potatoes into thin strips, like matchstick French fries. Then slice the sticks into thirds. This will be just small enough that the sweet potatoes will cook all the way through when the pizza cooks. Remember, the pizza will cook in 20 minutes or so. The potato pieces need to be small and thin enough to do the same. See notes if you have extra sweet potato slices.
- Shred the cheese.
- Roll your dough. Flour your cutting board and rolling pin and roll out your dough. You can make your pizza as thick or thin as you want. For my BBQ Chicken Pizza, I rolled a thicker dough with a thicker crust. For this pizza, I wanted it thinner and crispier so I rolled it thin. So roll to your preferred thickness.
- Assemble the pizza! Put your dough on the sheet pan. You can spray with non-stick spray or brush with olive oil if you like. Spoon the tomato sauce on top. Then add cheese, sweet potatoes, and fresh rosemary. Using a spoon lightly drizzle the top of your pizza with the garlic oil. Alternatively, you can drizzle with the garlic oil when it comes out of the oven. Either way – it’s awesome!
- Cook pizza in your preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. All ovens are different. It may take longer or shorter in your oven. Just keep checking it until it looks the way you want! When it starts to turn golden brown around the edges it's done.
Notes
- I wrote about this in the blog post. The first time I made this pizza, I couldn’t find smoked cheddar, so I used smoked gouda. When I filmed the recipe, I was able to find smoked cheddar, but not smoked gouda. Both tasted delicious! I steered clear of smoked cheddar with maple and bacon and other additional flavors because I don’t think that would work with this flavor profile.
- If making two pizzas, I find it’s helpful to have two piles of ingredients – one for each pizza. This way you don’t accidentally use all the cheese on ONE pizza and have none for the second. 😉
- With any extra garlic oil. Make garlic bread another night. OR add some chili flakes and shaker parmesan cheese and use it to dip warm, crusty French bread in (like Not Your Average Joe’s --- that stuff rocks!!)
- If you have extra sweet potato slices you can save them and make sweet potato french fries or simply roast them in the oven and serve as a side for your dinner another night.
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