So today, I give you another one of my weird pizza combinations.

While I’m not extremely pleased with my pictures, I did like the pizza so much that I still have to share it with you.

It might sound a little strange really, but sweet potatoes on a pizza are just fantastic. They add so much flavor on their own, you don’t need much of anything else.

And look how pretty!

True to my good old self, I didn’t use any tomato sauce again. Just a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel seeds.

Yep! You read that right. Fennel seeds. They worked perfectly well and helped bring the flavors to the next level!

Since sweet potatoes take a little bit of time to cook, I figured it would be best to give them a quick steam bath just to make sure they would be really nice and soft and creamy on top of that crust. The slices were so thin, however, I’m not even certain that it was absolutely necessary. I think next time I try this pizza, I will skip the steaming part.

Also, I chose to use poppy seeds to roll my dough in this time, as opposed to my usual cornmeal. What a nice crunch it added, not to mention a great addition of color!

I loved everything about that pizza, from start to finish!

Seriously, the more I make pizza at home and learn to create different and interesting combinations, the less commercial, greasy, “all dressed” pizza appeals to me.

When I get cravings for pizza now, I genuinely crave healthy pizza!

Like this one right here.

Dare to be different. Give it a try!

SWEET POTATO AND SPINACH PIZZA

INGREDIENTS
(for one 10-12 inch pizza)

DOUGH

TOPPINGS

  • 1 large sweet potato, sliced paper thin (ok, make that cardboard thin!)
  • About 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
  • ½ tsp whole fennel seeds
  • 75g low fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped

ADD-ONS (AFTER PIZZA IS OUT OF THE OVEN)

  • A handful of baby spinach leaves, chopped
  • 15g soft goat cheese, crumbled
  • 15g walnuts, coarsely chopped
  • ¼ tsp fennel seeds

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 500F.
  2. Peel and slice sweet potato as thin as possible (the use of a mandolin is strongly recommended here). Throw the slices in a steamer for about one minute, then lay them on a paper towel, very delicately, to remove any excess moisture. Be careful not to over cook the potatoes, else they will just fall apart. Keep a really close eye on them and remove them from the steam as soon as their border start to change color. Do not fully cook!
  3. Grind salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel seeds together using a mortar and pestle.
  4. Roll dough into 10-12 inch disc, using poppy seeds to prevent sticking instead of flour, and lay onto a pizza pan. Make sure you dust your pizza pan with flour as poppy seeds will not prevent sticking! Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle ground spice mixture on top, followed by half the mozzarella cheese.
  5. Very delicately lay the potato slices in a circular fashion, making sure the slices overlap, until the dough is completely covered.
  6. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese over the potatoes.
  7. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, until cheese is melted and starts to colour on the edge.
  8. Take pizza out of the oven and add chopped spinach, chopped walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and additional fennel seeds.