This afternoon we were watching a show about the best pizza places in the country so I had to go off our weekly menu and make some pizza tonight instead.

The convincing pie that had me back at the store picking up a few things was the Mac ‘n Cheese pizza.  I have been wanting to make this for awhile, but always thought I had to make the mac ‘n cheese first and that was a little too much prep.  I wasn’t going to throw some Kraft crap on my pizza, it was going to have to be made from scratch.

Mac ‘n cheese pizza isn’t unique to one pizzeria.  I have had it at a couple of different places and it’s pretty standard – cheese and pasta and usually some kind of white sauce.  I thought maybe an alfredo sauce would be good, but then that can be kind of heavy and rich so I put my mac ‘n cheese pizza on the back burner until I saw the show today.

I don’t remember the name of the pizzeria that they were featuring, but the guy making it said it was the easiest pizza they made.  He started with a crust (duh), sprinkled a little mozzarella on top of that, squirted some crème fraîche on top, then added plain noodles and put it in the oven.  When it came out after about 8 minutes, that was when he topped it with cheddar cheese.

That seemed easy enough.  I have never had crème fraîche that I know of, but whenever I hear someone mention it I think of the South Park episode when Randy treats the Food Network like porn.  As it turns out, crème fraîche is just like sour cream, but from what I read, it won’t separate or curdle when it’s heated.  That was worth the $4.99 I paid.

You can also make your own crème fraîche, but it involves intentionally letting some cream and buttermilk spoil on your countertop for about 12 hours.  I don’t think I could bring myself to eat it after knowing how long it sat out.  I prefer to let someone do the spoiling for me.

Here is the finished product:

Mac ‘n Cheese Pizza

My only complaint was that I didn’t cook it long enough.  It was good, but it could gone about another 5 minutes in the oven.

I also had to make a mashed potato pizza.  That one turned out perfect!

Mashed Potato Pizza