Pizzeria Picco’s Potato and Roasted Garlic Pizza

Pizzeria Picco’s Potato and Roasted Garlic Pizza
As featured in Serious Eats: Slice, July 29, 2010.

Makes: 1 small pizza

Ingredients:
1 dough portion (Peter Reinhart’s Neapolitan dough recipe works well, or easier yet, pick some up from your favorite pizzeria, most will sell it if you ask)
1 young organic potato (Hill suggests banana fingerlings or baby German butterballs), peeled and sliced super thin
Roasted garlic (about 12 cloves)
Fresh mozzarella, diced (about a palm full)
Grana Padano, grated (about half a palm full)
Rosemary olive oil
Salt

Preparation:
1. Try not to touch the edge of the dough when you’re stretching and pressing it out. You’ll be rewarded with a nicely rounded, raised crust.
2. When you place the roasted garlic on the pie, smash it down a bit so that it lays flat.
3. Be sure to dry the fresh mozzarella pieces in paper towels. Fresh mozzarella has a high level of moisture, so if you don’t get rid of some of it, you risk a soggy pizza.
4. It is important for the potatoes to be sliced as thin as possible since they are placed on the pizza raw. If you have a mandolin, this is the time to break it out.
5. Toss the potato slices in a few tablespoons of rosemary olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. (Note: to make your own rosemary olive oil, pulse together some fresh rosemary and high quality, extra virgin olive oil in a food processor or blender. Rosemary is strong so a little goes a long way. Start with 1 sprig to a cup of oil and add more if need be.)
6. Sprinkle the grated Grana Padano last.
7. Check for any “dead spots,” a.k.a. any bare spots that have no toppings. Also check to see that the toppings go right to the edge of the crust. Hill calls this “edge discipline.”