Colcannon Pizza

Irish Colcannon, a beloved comfort food made with mashed potatoes, cabbage, butter and bacon becomes the perfect “sauce” for an amazing pizza with a crispy cracker-thin style crust, then topped with shredded Irish cheese, more bacon, chopped tomatoes, red onion slices, snipped green onion and a drizzle of ranch dressing.

I know, to some of you it might sound a little odd to top your pizza with mashed potatoes and cabbage, but think loaded baked potato skins here … the cabbage is just along for the ride, hidden amongst the potatoes. This is comfort food at its best, and as the whole world battles against this virus, we all need a little extra comfort right now.

A thin crispy crust is essential to the whole experience because it’s sturdy and adds a little crunch factor and besides, you don’t want too much bread under all those mashed potatoes, just enough really to provide a good base.

The inspiration for this pizza came from one of my favorite local pubs (and I’m seriously hoping they make it through this mess), the place I always take my guests when they come to town and where my friends and I love to meet for a good craft beer and good conversation. They have for years hosted a bi-annual event called Beervana (and Brrr-vana in the colder months) with unlimited sampling of a fabulous selection of beers. I really LOVE those tastings … but they can be dangerous. I once walked all the way down there so I didn’t have my car there for the event, thinking before I started I could do the same to get home (a drunken stumble?), but once I got there my legs were jelly, so I knew THAT wasn’t going to work. Luckily my friends that I met there had a plan … one of them stayed sober by only taking TINY sips of a limited number of beers and they gave me a ride home. I remember when they dropped me off, I walked in the house, into my bedroom and promptly fell fast asleep and it was only 6 pm!

But I digress … this pub has a signature pizza that they serve: the mashed potato pizza. When I first heard of it, I didn’t think it sounded good at all, but my friends ordered one and forced me to try it. After one bite, I was in love. I’ve had many a mashed potato pizza there over the years since then, and also introduced it to friends the same way my other friends first made me try it. Many of them were also reluctant to try it, but they were instantly won over as well as soon as they tasted it. Even my mother, who doesn’t like mashed potatoes, loved it.

Unfortunately, the pizza has changed over time and it’s no longer anywhere as good as it used to be. I’m not sure why, but the mashed potatoes they use now are dry and they have been layering them on too thick and cutting down on the toppings … and you know what? That isn’t anywhere near as stellar. So after mentioning this to them and giving them a few tries to get it right since then, I gave up on ordering the mashed potato pizza there anymore and decided I really really need to replicate the excellent version of this amazing pizza at home. The thing I needed to figure out first, though, was the crust.

It took me a long time, but I FINALLY mastered that perfect thin, crunchy crust, so after that, I felt ready to tackle making the perfect mashed potato pizza! But as luck would have it, I didn’t stick to mashed potatoes because I happened to have some leftover colcannon on hand after St. Patrick’s Day and, in my humble opinion, colcannon is WAY better than mashed potatoes, so why the heck not put it on a pizza?

So I did. I’ve concluded that colcannon pizza is definitely WAY better than mashed potato pizza … it’s got all the wonderful flavors that my beloved pub originally concocted in their masterpiece pizza, plus it’s got all the extra health benefits of cabbage hiding in there. You can’t go wrong with that! I think the Irish would be proud.

I can’t wait to make this pizza for my friends and family, once we can gather together again, on the other side of all of this craziness. In the meantime, I hope this pretty pizza brings you a little comfort to help you through these hard times.

Print