Save Your Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes!
Your Pizza Has A Place For Them | Plus: A New Shaping Video
Pizza Friends, hello! And happy Friday.
If the idea of topping pizza with mashed potatoes sounds odd at best, I hear you. It is not something I would have ever thought to do had I not grown up in the New Haven, CT area, where a place called Bar, my favorite of all of the city’s renowned pizzerias, is famous for it.
Allegedly, in the mid-90’s, Bar experimented with adding a few seasonal pizzas to their menu, including a Thanksgiving-themed pie, one variation of which included cranberry sauce. It was a hit, and when it came time to remove it, its devotees protested. A compromise — a mashed potato and bacon pie — was added to the menu year-round and continues to be one of the restaurant’s most popular pies.
Urged by our server the first time we dined at Bar, my husband and I ordered this house classic, and I don’t think we’ve ever not ordered it since. It’s that good.
Again, I know it sounds weird (it is!) and heavy but it’s surprisingly light, due to the mashed potatoes themselves, which taste more like pillowy clouds than butter-laden blobs. They’re applied in dollops as opposed to an even layer, which provides textural variety throughout and further attributes to that lightness.
I made the pizza this week using leftover mashed potatoes and one bite of the garlicky, oregano-flecked pie instantly sent me back to Bar, so much so in fact that my brain actually tasted clams, because I so associate those flavors with also eating a white clam pie.
Anyway Friends, save your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes! And give this pizza a try. Below you will find the recipe from Pizza Night as well as a new balling-up video one of you requested a few weeks ago.
I am wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for your support and community this past year. I am so grateful for all of your thoughtful questions and comments and likes and loves. Thank you 🙏 🙏
If you need help with your Thanksgiving planning, here is my full round-up of Thanksgiving recipes, and here are two Google Docs to help you organize:
PS: If you ever find yourself in New Haven, I can’t recommend Bar enough. Two of their pizzas inspired recipes in Pizza Night as did the sole salad they offer:
Video: How to Ball up Dough (Side-View)
A few weeks ago, one of you asked if I could show how to ball up a round of dough from a side-angle view. Here it is. Note: It starts with an overhead view for the first ball, then moves to a side angle for the next two balls.
The Recipe: Bar-Inspired Mashed Potato and Bacon Pizza
As noted, this recipe makes great use of leftover mashed potatoes. This is my favorite recipe.
Gather your ingredients: parcooked bacon (stovetop 3 to 5 minutes), low-moisture whole milk mozzarella, finely grated pecorino, oregano, olive oil seasoned with a finely minced clove of garlic, and oregano.
For this pizza, I use the thin-crust dough recipe from Pizza Night. With the thin-crust dough, you “open it” by pinching the edges first…
… then rolling it out into a 13-inch round. (Video guidance can be found here starting around 1:43). Don’t be afraid to really be aggressive at the inches: pinch them with the rolling pin. The shape will spring back into a circle when you lift it from your work surface.
Transfer the dough to a pizza peel (lined with parchment for easy transfer to the Baking Steel or stone); then brush with the garlic oil:
Top with finely grated pecorino then…
… the mashed potatoes, mozzarella, and par-cooked bacon:
Season with oregano, olive oil, and flaky sea salt:
Bake at 550ºF convection roast on a preheated Baking Steel or pizza stone for 4 to 5 minutes or until done to your liking. (Incidentally, it’s been gloomy for 3 days in a row and I could not get a good photo for the life of me!)
But it was as delicious as ever.
Better light in sunny CA ☀️☀️☀️
This one was cooked on the Gozney:
Love pizza and salad? Find recipes, tips, and tricks in Pizza Night 🍕🍕🥗🥗
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Hello Alexandra, I founded BAR in 1991 along with my late business partner Stuart Press. A friend of mine, who loves your recipes, just forwarded your latest post to me. I’m writing because I appreciate your kind words about BAR, but also to clear up a misconception. It is true that we used to make a seasonal Thanksgiving pie, but that was not the impetus for our Mashed potato pizza. Our Mashed potato pizza was on the original menu and was inspired by a rather unusual recipe of my own. When I was a kid I liked eating spaghetti sandwiches - Spaghetti on white bread. When pondering the menu for BAR I wanted to include something like the starch on starch sandwich. After some experimenting the Mashed Potato pie came to be. I thought it would be a novel addition to the menu. It has become what we are known for. Who knew!
Say hello next time you’re in.
Randy Hoder
Yes please to mashed pots on pizza.