Spiralized Sweet Potato Pizza Bake with Turkey Bacon
Try this Spiralized Sweet Potato Pizza Bake with Turkey Bacon recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Spiralized Sweet Potato Pizza Bake with Turkey Bacon recipe, or contribute your own.
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 easpoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- for the sweet potatoes:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled, blade c
- for the casserole:
- 1.5 cups marinara sauce (i like rao’s)
- 1.25 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil to garnish
- 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese to garnish
- 12 turkey pepperoni slices
- Carbohydrate 14.611759584228 g
- Cholesterol 22.8208333523386 mg
- Fat 7.38798229643394 g
- Fiber 2.04049999768863 g
- Protein 9.87022292397262 g
- Saturated Fat 3.86876464884923 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (104g)
- Sodium 280.453539248695 mg
- Sugar 12.5712595865394 g
- Trans Fat 0.356667479416743 g
- Calories 164 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and grease a 10†cast-iron skillet or square casserole dish.
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in the olive oil. Once oil heats, add in the sweet potato noodles and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Let cook for about 5 minutes or until noodles begin to soften.
- Transfer the cooked noodles to the casserole dish and pour over the tomato sauce. Sprinkle the dried oregano over the tomato sauce evenly and then layer over with the mozzarella cheese. Place the pepperoni slices on top in rows.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until cheese melts through and is slightly golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, garnish with basil and parmesan cheese.
Preheating the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit establishes the thermal gradient required for the mozzarella proteins to denature and brown before the moisture inside the sweet potatoes boils away completely. Starch gelatinization occurs inside the potato strands when they meet direct heat in the skillet for that initial five-minute window, softening the cellular walls without rendering them completely mushy. Olive oil acts as a hydrophobic transfer medium, coating the spiralized root vegetables to distribute thermal energy evenly across the cast-iron surface. Seasoning the noodles with garlic powder and salt at this stage draws out surface moisture via osmosis, concentrating the vegetable sugars before the tomato sauce is introduced.
Combining acidic tomato marinara with sweet potato starches creates a balanced flavor profile where the malic and citric acids in the tomatoes cut through the inherent sweetness of the carbohydrates. Dried oregano contributes thymol and carvacrol, volatile aromatic compounds that dissolve efficiently in the residual fats of the olive oil and melted cheese. As the casserole bakes, the Maillard reaction triggers between the milk solids in the parmesan cheese and the amino acids present in the turkey pepperoni, generating savory pyrazines and furanones.
Visual cues dictate when the dish has reached optimal doneness because oven temperatures vary significantly based on calibration. Watch for the mozzarella cheese to transform into a uniform, bubbling layer showing amber-colored spots across the surface, which typically requires twenty to twenty-five minutes of total exposure. The edges of the marinara sauce should bubble actively against the walls of the ten-inch cast-iron skillet, indicating that the core temperature has equalized throughout the casserole.
Cooling the baked dish for ten minutes allows the emulsified fats in the cheese to resolidify slightly, preventing the slice structure from collapsing upon serving. Fresh basil added immediately after extraction from the heat source releases delicate estragole and linalool aromatics through thermal volatilization.
