Potato and Leek Flat Bread

*Post by Angela.
Lately, the stuff we've been eating at home I haven't felt was worth posting about (or am kind of embarrassed about eating) - pasta with store-bought pesto, sandwiches thrown together from leftovers, frozen goods, canned sardines and rice...sigh.  But last night, even though I was feeling super lazy, I wanted to eat something I didn't heat in the microwave.  With a little assist from some refrigerated pizza dough, I threw together this tasty potato and leek flat bread from Real Simple in virtually no time at all. 

Click below to get the recipe!

List of ingredients for the flat bread:
1 lb. refrigerated pizza dough
A half a handful of cornmeal
1 large leek
1/2 lb small red potatoes
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper
Crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere

First, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, and prepped the toppings by cutting the leek (only the white and light green parts) into thin strips, and slicing the potatoes really thinly with my mandoline.  Unfortunately, in doing so, I ended my streak of non-injurious mandoline use - I took off the tip of my thumb and had to put together the rest of this dish with my hand swaddled in paper towels.  Mark wanted me to post a picture of it, but that's really disgusting.  Instead, look!  Pretty prepped leeks and potatoes!

In a large bowl, I combined the leeks and potatoes with the thyme leaves, oil, and about a tsp. each salt and pepper, making sure that all the ingredients were covered sufficiently with oil.  If you don't do this, there's a chance that your toppings could burn.  And that would be gross to eat.  And it would cause your tiny apartment to possibly fill up with smoke.  And then you would be in a bad mood for the next couple of days because your entire living area smells like burnt pizza, including your "Future Survivor of the Zombie Apocalypse" shirt you wanted to wear to Happy Hour on Friday. 

What I'm telling you is that it's important that everything gets good and covered in the oil, okay?

Next, I rolled the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it was about 1/4" thick.  This was my attempt at stretching it into a rectangle.

I sprinkled a baking sheet with cornmeal and placed the dough on top.  I made a nice little crumbled layer of goat cheese, and then spread the vegetable mixture evenly.  I topped it all off with the Gruyere.  The goat cheese was not in the original, but it was in the fridge, so I thought I'd toss it in.

I baked the flatbread in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the potatoes and leeks were tender, and voilà!  Yummy, quick and light dinner for me and Mark!  Although in truth, he didn't get to eat much of it - I tore this bad boy up.