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Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza and French Exit

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie, where every Friday I share an easy pizza idea and a movie recommendation. It’s a family tradition we have at the Djalali house to enjoy a homemade pizza and a movie together. I recently watched the documentary The Last Blockbuster and while it tracks the rise and fall of the video rental chain, it’s really about the tradition of Family Movie Night. Browsing the rental store with the family looks a lot different now than it did when we were growing up, but that doesn’t mean the tradition has to end. Today’s movie is French Exit, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. So let’s get to today’s pizza: Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza.

Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza

Mississippi Pot Roast Leftovers

This pizza uses leftover Mississippi Pot Roast. What is that exactly? It’s a chuck roast cooked in an au jus with ranch seasoning, pepperoncini peppers and their brine. Served with mashed potatoes and the cooked pepperoncini peppers. We translated the chuck roast leftovers to Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza by adding roasted potato slices, mozzarella cheese, pepperoncinis, and finished it with a ranch dressing drizzle.

Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza ingredients

Even if you don’t have the Mississippi Pot Roast leftovers, this can easily be made with leftover pot roast – with the rest of the pizza ingredients, you’re mostly there. I will definitely share a recipe for the actual Mississippi Pot Roast recipe sometime this summer. So pin this recipe on Pinterest to have a great way to use those leftovers!

Build the Pizza

layer of cheese and roasted potatoes on the pizza dough

I have pre-roasted these thinly sliced potatoes in the oven. Alternatively, you can slice and boil the potatoes to have less crispy potato slices, if you like.

We have the wood oven hot and ready for a thin crust, Neapolitan-style pizza. You can make this a pan pizza; I think it would be great that way too. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. To begin, stretch your prepared dough out to about 12-inches. I have fresh mozzarella pearls, but fresh mozz slices work, or hand-grated low-moisture mozzarella would work well too. (Avoid the pre-shredded stuff if you can; it contains a cellulose coating to keep from sticking. This coating makes the cheese not melt as well.)

Scatter about half of the cheese evenly over the pizza, then place the potato slices. Top the potato slices with the shredded pot roast.

Leftover pot roast on the potatoes and cheese.

Then, the pepperoncini peppers. The ones I am using are leftover from the pot roast, so they already have a bit of browning to them, but you can use them right out of the jar.

Adding the pepperoncini peppers

Top with a few more cheese pearls. We are ready for the oven! Bake the pizza in the oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza
Always save the cooking juice, or au jus from a pot roast. It’s great to use as an oil for sautéing veggies, or cooking eggs. It imparts all the flavors of the pot roast and adds a deeper flavor to anything you use it for.

To Finish…

I have the ranch dressing and the leftover au jus in squeeze bottles, at the ready. When the pizza comes out, drizzle some of the au jus over the top and follow that with a drizzle of ranch dressing.

Finishing with ranch dressing

The savory pot roast gets a little crispy around the edges and top, which brings more flavor and richness to the meat; cooled by the tangy ranch dressing. The potatoes are crispy and soft inside. Pepperoncini peppers lose most of their heat, but their briny flavor brings so much brightness. A very well-balanced pizza that is so satisfying and is a fun way to enjoy a re-purposed pot roast meal.

Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza

Movie Night: French Exit

Pizza is ready, let’s start the show! French Exit is a comedy/drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Frances Price, a broke socialite trying to escape the scrutiny of the New York socialite scene. An opportunity to stay at a friend’s Paris apartment sees Frances and her son, Malcolm (with their cat, Small Frank) sailing for France.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo6Xu_Qtupk

This movie is quirky and Pfeiffer really shines in her role. Lucas Hedges plays Malcolm, and carries the character with the same type of dead-pan apathy we saw him bring to his role as Tyler, in Let Them All Talk. Similar roles for him, but not in a bad way. Stylistically, the oft-used symmetrical framing is reminiscent of Wes Anderson, as is the score – none of this is a bad thing; it fits the story and the characters’ eccentricities. Alex and I both enjoyed this film, it’s clever and surprising, humorous and thoughtful. Definitely consider French Exit for your next movie night!

Thank you all for joining me today for Pizza and a Movie. Remember you can always catch up with past pizza ideas and movie recommendations by clicking the Pizza and a Movie tab, under Series, in the menu at the top. Have a beautiful weekend everyone, take care and be well. xo Kelly

Mississippi Pot Roast Pizza

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Dinner, Main Course American/Italian
By Kelly Djalali Serves: 2-4
Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 25 Minutes

Leftover post roast gets new life on a pizza; with roasted potato slices, pepperoncini peppers, drizzled au jus and ranch dressing.

Ingredients

  • 1 Prepared Pizza Dough
  • 1 8-oz. Package Mozzarella Pearls
  • 1 large Potato, sliced thinly and roasted with Kosher salt and pepper until golden
  • 1 cup Pot Roast leftovers, shredded
  • 6-8 Pepperoncini Peppers
  • Drizzle of Leftover Au Jus Sauce, from the original pot roast
  • Drizzle of Ranch Dressing

Instructions

1

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2

On a floured pizza peel, dust the dough with flour and create a crust around the perimeter of the dough and flatten down the center.

3

Stretch it out on the backs of your hands, left hand over right hand, until the dough is roughly 12-inches around.

4

Add more flour evenly on the peel and lay the dough on the peel.

5

Scatter about half of the mozzarella pearls, evenly over the dough.

6

Evenly place the roasted potato slices over the cheese.

7

Top with the shredded leftover pot roast.

8

Add as many of the remaining mozzarella pearls as you like.

9

Top with the pizza with pepperoncini peppers.

10

Bake the pizza for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

11

Once the pizza is out of the oven, drizzle some of the leftover au jus over the pizza; and then a good drizzle of ranch dressing.

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  • Terry
    June 18, 2021 at 9:56 am

    Yumm this looks delicious I’ll have to give it a shot I think gram might like this as well have a great weekend ❤️Mom

    • Kelly Djalali
      June 18, 2021 at 11:30 am

      Hi Mom, It’s a great way to use some leftovers! Let me know how you like it. xo Kelly