Sweet Potato Crust Arugula and Ricotta Pizza

Well, well, well. What do we have here!? A sweet potato crust pizza! I cannot tell you how excited I am to share this recipe with you. We have been working on this crust for a week and its absolutely delicious. We made a couple different cauliflower crust pizzas a couple years back and I thought we couldn't top those, but this pizza just takes the freaking cake. It has a crispy, garlic and parmesan sweet potato crust and it's layered with melted mozzarella and ricotta cheese. We then topped it with peppery arugula lettuce and thinly sliced shallots that were tossed in lemon juice. Sprinkled with red pepper flakes and parmesan shavings and holy mollllllly. I meannnn stop it! It is so delicious. You can mix and match your ingredients. If I was making a second one I might add some prosciutto on top. I know it's totally messing with the whole vegetarian vibe, but I'm not a vegetarian and I love prosciutto and I think it would pair well. Ok, scroll down for the recipe. We made a couple different versions of this crust trying to come up with the best recipe so we have a lot of tips for y'all!

We made the bottom crust way too thin and added olive oil to the mix. If was too wet and we had to bake it for way too long so we tweaked our ingredients and tried again.

We used a cheesecake pan for this crust and doubled the amount we put in the pan so it was a thicker crust. We took out all excess moisture as well. Perfection.

Sweet Potato Crust Pizza

Crust Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
⅔ cup rolled oats
1 egg
½ cup Parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
¼ tsp red pepper flakes

Topping Ingredients
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
⅛ tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
2 handfuls arugula
Juice of half a lemon
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
3/4 cup Ricotta cheese
Pinch of pepper
Red pepper flakes (to taste)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line a 9" cheese cake pan with parchment paper. Spray the sides with non-stick spray and set pan aside.

2. Pulse the sweet potato and oats through the food processor until very fine. Add the egg, cheese, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Pulse again to mix. The mixture should resemble a loose dough or thick batter.

3. Transfer dough to the parchment lined cheese cake pan. (You can also use a parchment lined baking sheet or round pizza pan. Place dough on the pan and press into shape with your hands.) Press dough into pan. Flatten evenly. Crust should be about ¼ to ½ inch thick.

4. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the top is dry to the touch. Remove from oven, let cool, and invert back onto the pan with the dry side facing down. Peel the parchment very gently off the top layer. Bake for another 5-10 minutes to get a nice crispy top.

5. Put the garlic cloves through a garlic press. Mix the garlic in a small bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Brush crust with garlic/olive oil mixture.

6. Spread ¾ cup of ricotta cheese on top of the crust and sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake at 400° for 8 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

7. In a medium bowl toss two handfuls arugula with half a lemon, pinch of pepper, Parmesan cheese, and the sliced shallot.

8. Spread arugula evenly over pizza. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes if desired.