Deep Dish Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza

Thanksgiving leftovers (turkey, cranberry, stuffing and sides) tucked under a blanket of colby jack cheese for a deep dish pizza version of the traditional leftover bake.

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I've been sharing Thanksgiving recipes lately, including my Round Up of Thanksgiving Recipe Round Ups (that is a mouthful, in oh so many ways). As much as I adore a table full of side dishes, that means there are inevitably leftovers.

My favorite way to have Thanksgiving is to enjoy the main meal midday, then let everyone fix a plate of leftovers for dinner. Subsequent days bring turkey sandwiches, perhaps on a Multigrain Cereal Bun spread with Cranberry Salsa. But my current favorite way to enjoy leftovers the day after Thanksgiving is in a deep dish pizza.

Even though I suck at planning out weekly menus, having a routine Friday Night Pizza Night means I know what's coming up at least. After I learned How Not To Make Lou Malnati's Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza I got creative trying other methods. My deep dish pizza confidence grew to the point that I made 2 versions of post-Thanksgiving deep dish pizzas. Here's the first one.

This pizza has a bit of nearly every Thanksgiving side, in small spoonfuls scattered across a base of mashed potato-spread pizza dough. As I'm glad to eat everything together, this is a fun way to do that while making the most of the veggies that our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers put their heart and soul into producing.

Note: For general pizza instructions please see my Pizza Primer. For additional tips and tricks please see 7 Tips for Making Pizza at Home.

Deep Dish Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza

Ingredients

• ½ pound pizza dough of your choice (you can see I'm as starry eyed over a magically marked down ball of dough as the next frazzled wannabe home pizza cook)
• olive oil for brushing on the crust
• ½ cup leftover mashed potatoes (straight out of the fridge is just fine)
• ½ to 1 cup leftover turkey meat, chopped (ditto about the fridge)
• ½ to 1 cup leftover stuffing (ditto for all these ingredients, actually)
• ¼ to ½ cup each other assorted sides (I had about ¼ cup each creamed spinach, mashed sweet potatoes, and Semi Homemade Cranberry Pineapple Pecan Salad)
• ⅓ cup leftover gravy
• 6-7 slices ColbyJack cheese (or a cheddar variety)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add a splash of olive oil to a 10 inch skillet (I use cast iron).
2. Stretch a room temp ball of pizza dough across the base of the skillet and a wee bit up the sides.
3. Brush the crust with olive oil, then spread a thin layer of mashed potatoes on top.
4. Dot turkey, stuffing, sides and gravy evenly across the mashed potatoes.
5. Cover with slices of cheese.
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until cheese is melted and leftovers are heated through.
7. Lift out of skillet and cool on a rack for 5-7 minutes, then transfer to a cutting board or back into the skillet to cut and serve.

For more Leftover Remake Recipes . . . well I suppose you'll have to use the blog search function. That's a good idea for a category. If I ever get done scrubbing the bathroom floor and the tub I'll think about making one for the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient as otherwise this recipe wouldn't make it on there. However, this recipe will make it to the Visual Pizza Recipe Index for sure. I'll also be pinning it to my Pinterest boards, and sharing new pizzas (green tomatoes on the counter are inspiring me) on my FB page. Want to know How to Use This Blog?