Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sweet Potato Pizza Sauce

I am always so glad to see sweet potatoes and winter squash in our deliveries, since they keep well, with little or no fuss. Some of the fruits and veggies are little divas. They must have just the right temperature, their labels must be removed before they ripen, else the label removes the skin, some don't get along well with others, etc. As much as I love the delicate treats that have to be eaten quickly before they try to go good, I adore my stalwart squash and sweet potatoes. Is it any wonder that they show up so often on my pages?


I guess this was an inevitable progression, but I decided to try sweet potato purée for a pizza sauce. In talking to people about this sort of experiment, I have gotten very mixed reactions. Some people refuse to consider anything other than tomato sauce, but I was surprised to find that some people don't like the old stand-by. They have to order either  light sauce or no sauce. I like tomato sauce, but I have been having a blast switching up the line-up, and I would love to hear from you. Is it tomato sauce for you all the way, or do you also like to try something different? Is there something that you think I should try? Post a comment and tell me what you are thinking.


This is where I usually post a recipe, but since there isn't really one, I'll just tell you what I did.


While I roast squash, I prefer to boil sweet potatoes. I gave four large organic sweet spuds a light scrub, put them into a pot with a lot of water and set them on the stove at a little over medium heat, and let them cook until I could easily pierce them deeply with a fork (if you aren't careful the outside is done and the middle is raw). You can cut them up to reduce cooking time, but when I have done that in the past the mash was more watery. When I decided that they were done, I drained the water and put the potatoes on a couple plates to cool. Once I could handle them, I removed the skins, and puréed them in batches. This resulted in well over four cups of mash.


Once the crust was ready, and rolled out, I scooped several spoons sweet potato purée directly on to the dough, and spread it to make sure I had the coverage that I wanted. On top of that, I sprinkled thyme and basil, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, onions and pepperoni. This went into a 450°F (app. 230°C*) oven for approximately 15 minutes.


Both dear hubby and I really liked the result, and even I went back for a second serving when our ten minutes had expired (we wait at least ten minutes between servings- this helps keep us from overeating. . . . as much). By the way, the leftovers were even better.


*I use an online conversion chart and round up or down, as seems appropriate. Please adjust according to your judgement, and send me a message if you find an error. Thank you.

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