With pizza fried-rice being somewhat of a failure, I decided to blend pizza with yet another Asian food: potstickers. I ended up with two different concoctions, and I’m not sure what to call either of them. Pizza Potstickers? Pizza Pockets? Pizza Pouches? I can tell you that neither outcome was what I intended, but they were each pretty good in their own way.
Let’s start with the first ones, which turned out—as intended—to be more like gyoza or potstickers. My original plan was to just make potstickers with Italian sausage, a bit of pizza sauce and some cheese. Pretty simple. I was tripped up, however, when I precooked the meat.
Traditional potstickers are assembled with raw meat, but I have undercooked-pork paranoia, so I didn’t want to use raw sausage (I’m always worried that the raw pork is not going to cook through during the regular gyoza cooking process. Irrational, I know, but what can you do?) And there lies the problem, cooked pork doesn’t squish down during the potsticker assembly, so a person with limited patience like me would have a hard time making the potsticker in it’s traditional shape. There was an easy fix, though, just use two full potsticker skins and make flying-saucer-shaped potstickers. These actually were actually pretty good.
With those being good, but not turning out exactly as intended, I went in the crispy direction, with the whatever-you-want-to-call-thems cooked in a muffin pan. Same ingredients as the faux potstickers, but they had a far different outcome. Again, they were actually pretty good. Next time, though I’d fill them a bit more with toppings.
What you’ll need (for both appetizers)
- Potsticker skins
- Italian sausage, cooked
- Pizza or marinara sauce
- Shredded mozzarella cheese (I used a blend of Asiago, mozzarella and Romano)
- Olive-oil cooking spray
What to do for the two-skin pizza potsticker flying-saucers:
Lay a potsticker skin flat and add your toppings to the center.
Wet the perimeter of the first potsticker skin and place the second skin over it. Seal the skins together by pressing fork tines into the edge of the skins, going around the entire circumference.
Put some oil in a fry pan over medium heat. Add the potstickers and cook until they begin to crisp up. Add 0.33 cups water to the pan and immediately cover. Let them cook for a bit, and turn them over if you wish. They’re done when the water has evaporated and the undersides are crispy.
Serve with warm pizza or marinara sauce for dipping.
What to do for the crispy-skin version:
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Stuff a potsticker skin into each indentation, as seen in the photos. When the oven has reached 350, cook the skins in it. I do not have a specific time for you, but I did check the skins every few minutes, and took them out when they just started to brown. At that point, they are dry and crispy.
Add your pizza sauce, sausage and cheese—in that order—and put back in the oven until the cheese has melted.
Serve hot.
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