Thick spicy pizza sauce and bubbly cheese over freshly-baked potato shells. A bygone favorite from the west coast franchise Round Table Pizza. Recipe adapted from Fat Dave’s Home Cookin’.
Pizza sauce ingredients
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste (plus 1 can of water)
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Crushed red pepper, to taste
Additional ingredients
- Small potatoes (3-4 inches in length)
- Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Other toppings, if desired
Preparation
- Bake potatoes ahead of time: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash potatoes, scrubbing well with a vegetable brush (in a pinch I’ve used a stainless steel scouring pad – not the soapy kind, of course). Poke a few holes with a fork and bake for 60-75 minutes, until potato pushes in with a little pressure or a fork pokes in easily. Remove and let cool at room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise to make two wide potato halves. Scoop out a large spoonful of potato flesh from the center of each half. Remove more if you prefer a thinner potato shell, but if you get much closer than about 1/2″ to the skin, it may break apart.
- Spread about a tablespoon of pizza sauce (more or less as you like) in the spooned-out potato surface. A thicker shell will need more sauce to keep the pizzatato from being too bland. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, watching closely as time gets close. Cheese pizzatatoes may be golden brown after only 8 minutes; if you add other toppings they may take 12-14 minutes. Serve with ranch dressing, if you like, or a bit of extra sauce on the side.
Notes
- Sauce recipe makes 1 1/2 cups – enough for 18-24 small potato halves.
- For pizzatatoes the Round Table way, add a bit of shredded cheddar on top of the mozzarella.
- Potatoes are one of the dirty dozen fruits/vegetables with the highest pesticide residue, so it’s great to buy organic if you can.
Here’s a link back to the post and pictures.
