My Irish pizza is fun fusion recipe with a seeded rye crust, boiled vegetables, and - of course - corned beef. A delicious pizza that’s perfect for St Patrick's Day!
Originally Posted March 14, 2012. Updated 2/22/2023
No small task, considering that the dining room was still being used as temporary storage for everything that belonged in the kitchen.
As we have enough of the shelves done to move forward, I'm re-populating them with everything that's been in the dining room.
It may not sound like much, but it's a lot of fussy decision making, as much as anything. The new cabinetry layout is completely different from the old one, so I need to figure out where I want everything to be.
Anyway, the big cleaning rush is on account of our "St Pi-trick's Day" party this weekend. I just finished the menu up last night - it's going to be GOOD!
For the uninitiated: My husband's favorite "holiday" is Pi Day (He's a major math nerd), while my favorite is St Patrick's Day (Irish Canadian, here!).
Usually, we celebrate the two together, ON Pi day. Loads of pi trivia, round foods, etc... with a heavy Irish theme running on top of it.
Irish Stew Meatballs is an example. Round, but Irish themed too! Also, my Best Shepherd's Pie Ever ... in a round pan.
If you're looking for a tasty meal to serve for your own celebrations this time of year - I've got the recipe for you! Behold: St Patrick's Day Pizza!
St. Patrick’s Day Pizza
I created this Irish Pizza recipe for our pi day celebrations a few years ago, and it's been a March staple for us ever since.
It's basically the result of wondering "What's the best way to combine the two themes in one epic main dish?". Well... now you know!
This recipe starts with a flavorful, tender beer-based rye crust and continues with a sauce made from boiled root vegetables, rather than a more traditional tomato sauce.
Top with some corned beef, cabbage, and Irish cheddar... there you have it. It may not technically be Irish cuisine, but it’s the best pizza for St Pi-trick's Day festivities!
A quick note on logistics:
While I’m a weirdo that will invest a ton of work in getting ready for pi day and/or St Patrick’s Day, this recipe would work best done as leftovers, the day AFTER St Patrick’s day.
After all... why cook up a brisket, cabbage, and veggies JUST for a pizza, when you can plan it as leftovers and draw the St Paddy’s Day fun out for an extra day?
Ingredients
This recipe looks like it has a bit of a laundry list of ingredients, but they’re all pretty simple - you likely have most of them on hand already!
Anything you don’t already have should be easy enough to find in any grocery store. A few notes for you:
Seeded Rye Pizza Dough
This dough takes only minutes to make, and adds SO much flavour to the overall pizza. I use:
All Purpose Flour
Rye Flour
Honey
Olive Oil
Active Dry Yeast
Black Peppercorns
Caraway Seeds
Mustard Seeds
Salt
My only real notes on this is that if you only have dark beer - we used Guinness - I’ll usually do half beer, half water. If I’m using a lager, I’ll just do the whole amount of liquid as the beer.
All that said, you can substitute your favourite pre-made crust if you need to save the time and effort. (Trust me, the time and effort is definitely worth it, though!)
Boiled Vegetable Sauce
This recipe was originally designed to use colcannon as the sauce.
Over the years, I’ve adapted it to use a boiled vegetable sauce - combining the some of the other flavours in a corned beef and cabbage meal, just in sauce form!
I use:
Red Potatoes, peeled
Parsnips
Carrots
Sour cream
Butter
Milk
Salt and Pepper
It does tend to make a bit more sauce than you need for 1 pizza (is closer to the amount you’ll need if you split the dough for two pizzas).
I just prefer to have a little too much, than to have to ask for ⅔ lb of this, ⅓ lb of that, etc. Easy weights FTW.
Pizza Toppings
The pizza toppings are pretty simple, and most of them can be done as leftovers from St Patrick’s Day boiled dinner / corned beef and cabbage.
I use:
Corned Beef
Sliced onion
Cabbage
Cheddar Cheese
Caraway Seeds (Optional)
A few notes:
1. If you have the time and inclination, I highly recommend trying my Homemade Corned Beef . It’s got SO much more flavour than the retail stuff, and imparts much better flavor on the veggies cooked with it.
2. I’ve done this with red onion, and I’ve made it with white or yellow onions. It’s all good.
3. For the cabbage, this recipe originally used raw green cabbage that was quick boiled before making the pizza. Eventually, I took to using leftover cabbage from corned beef and cabbage. Either way works, but the leftover boiled cabbage has more flavour.
4. For the cheddar cheese, I like to use Irish cheddar if possible, to keep it more on theme. When I don’t feel like splurging on it, I’ll use either a medium cheddar or sharp chaddar, sometimes a mix.
5. You can swap out some of the cheddar for Mozzarella cheese if you’re a purist, but the cheddar really adds something.
Then again, if you’re a pizza purist, this might not be the recipe for you, LOL!
How to Make Irish Pizza
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:Seeded Rye Dough
In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, add honey to warm beer, stir till well blended. Add yeast and stir again. Allow to sit (somewhere warm!) for 10 minutes.
Heat on medium high, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes or so. Once mixture becomes fragrant, remove from heat.
Transfer spice mixture to a mortar/pestle set or spice grinder. Grind until broken up, but not *finely* so.
Add yeast mixture and ⅓ cup of olive oil, mix till well blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
Dump dough out onto a floured surface, knead until soft and elastic, 5-10 minutes.
Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
The pizza dough should ball easily – if it’s too wet - and sticks to the bottom of the bowl - add a bit of flour. If it’s too dry, add a bit more water.
Place dough in the greased bowl, flip over to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for one hour.
After one hour, dough should have doubled in size. Punch dough down and allow to rise for another hour or so.
As you’re waiting for the second rise, make the sauce:
Boiled Vegetable Sauce
Peel potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. Cut vegetables in pieces - potatoes should be 4-6 pieces each, carrots maybe half the size of the potato pieces, and the parsnips a little bigger than the carrot pieces.
Place vegetables in a large pot of salted water. Boil over medium high heat until all the vegetables are fork tender, about 25 minutes.
Remove from heat, strain out the water.
Mash vegetables til smooth – I like to put them in my food processor and let it rip!
Cover with plastic wrap, set aside.
Note: This makes a bit more sauce than you may need.
Pizza Assembly
Pre heat oven to 400 F, place your oven rack in the center of the oven, or slightly lower.
Whether you’re using leftover cabbage or raw cabbage, slice it into thin strips.
For raw cabbage, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add cabbage to boiling water, cook just until cabbage starts to soften. Strain, set aside.
Prepare the remaining ingredients - thinly slice the onions, chop your corned beef, etc.
I like to dump my pizza dough onto a cookie sheet or large pizza stone that I’ve sprayed with olive oil or cooking spray, then roll in out right in the pan.
The dough should be of a relatively even thickness throughout the pan, with a bit pushed up around the sides as an outer crust.
Divide your toppings out in half before topping the pizzas, to ensure the second pizza gets the same amount of toppings!
Stir your sauce. If it’s too thick to spread easily, feel free to add a little bit of milk. Spread over prepared pizza crust.
Scatter half the cheese, then a single layer of corned beef, onion slices, and cabbage across the pizza.
Top with remaining shredded cheese, and a scattering of caraway seeds if you’d like.
Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes.
Serve hot, with some green salad!
Leftovers
Once cooled to room temperature, place slices of pizza in an airtight container, or wrap individually with plastic wrap.
Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Best when reheated for 30 seconds or so in the microwave, then finished with a few minutes in an air fryer to freshen it up.
More St Patrick's Day Recipes
Looking for more fun, tasty recipes to serve on St Paddy's Day? Here are a few fun Irish - and Irish-inspired - recipes to try:
Green Velvet Cake
Irish Stew Meatballs
Keto Irish Cream
Shepherd's Pie
Keto Shepherd's Pie
Homemade Corned Beef
Irish Nachos
Hearty Beef Stew
Keto Beef Stew
Rainbow Bagels
Rainbow Charcuterie Board
Rocky Road to Dublin Brownies
St Patrick's Day Charcuterie Board
Share the Love!
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Irish Pizza [St Patrick's Day Pizza]
Equipment
- Large Pizza Pan
Ingredients
Seeded Rye Dough:
- 1 ½ Cups Warm, Flat Beer We used half water and half Guinness this time.
- 2 tablespoon Honey
- 4 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
- 1 tablespoon Caraway Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns
- 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Cup Rye Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ⅓ Cup Olive Oil + 1 Tbsp
Sauce:
- 1 ½ lbs Red Potatoes peeled
- 1 lb Parsnips
- ½ lb Carrots
- ½ cup Sour Cream
- 2 tablespoon Butter
- ⅓ cup Milk
- Salt and Pepper
Assembly:
- ½ lb Thick Cut Corned Beef
- 1 Small Onion Sliced
- 1-2 Cups Chopped Fresh Cabbage or leftover boiled cabbage
- 3+ Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese Irish if Possible!
- Caraway seeds optional
Instructions
Seeded Rye Dough:
- Add honey to warm beer, stir till well blended. Add yeast and stir again. Allow to sit (somewhere warm!) for 10 minutes.
- Combine caraway seeds, mustard seeds, and peppercorns in a small, dry skillet. Heat on medium high, stirring frquently, for 2-3 minutes or so. Once mixture becomes fragrant, remove from heat.
- Transfer spice mixture to a mortar/pestle set or spice grinder. Grind until broken up, but not *finely* so.
- In a large mixing bowl - or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook - combine all purpose flour, rye flour, ground spices, and salt.
- Add yeast mixture and ⅓ cup of olive oil, mix till well blended.
- Dump dough out onto a floured surface, knead until soft and elastic, 5-10 minutes. Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Dough should ball easily – if it’s too wet, add a bit of flour. If it’s too dry, add a bit more water.
- Once dough is fully kneaded, swirl 1 tablespoon olive oil into a large bowl, add dough, flip over to coat. cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for one hour.
- After one hour, dough should have doubled in size. Punch dough down and allow to rise for another hour or so.
- As you’re waiting for the second rise, make the sauce:
Boiled Vegetable Sauce:
- Peel potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. Cut vegetables in pieces - potatoes should be 4-6 pieces each, carrots maybe half the size of the potato pieces, and the parsnips a little bigger than the carrot pieces.
- Place vegetables in a large pot of salted water. Boil over medium high heat until all the vegetables are fork tender, about 25 minutes.
- Remove from heat, strain out the water.
- Mash vegetables til smooth – I like to put them in my food processor and let it rip!
- When veggies are smooth, add sour cream, butter, and milk. Blend everything is well incorporated and smooth, season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cover with plastic wrap, set aside.
- Note: This makes a bit more sauce than you may need.
Pizza Assembly:
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add cabbage to boiling water, cook just until cabbage starts to soften. Strain, set aside.
- I like to dump my pizza dough onto a cookie sheet that I’ve sprayed with olive oil or cooking spray, then roll in out right in the pan. The dough should be of a relatively even thickness throughout the pan, with a bit pushed up around the sides as an outer crust.
- Stir your sauce. If it’s too thick to spread easily, feel free to add a little bit of milk. Spread over prepared pizza crust.
- Scatter corned beef, onion slices, and cabbage across the pizza. Top with shredded cheese, and a scattering of caraway seeds if you’d like.
- Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes. Serve hot!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Allison @ Alli n son
Love the Irish-inspired pizza crust. Sounds wonderful with all of those spices.