Stuck With Thanksgiving Leftovers? Turkey + Gravy + Cranberry Sauce = Pizza at the Maritime Hotel’s La Bottega Restaurant

What to do with that leftover turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce sitting in the ‘fridge? If you run an Italian restaurant, there’s an obvious solution: make pizza.

Bart Retolatto, chef at La Bottega, the stylish Italian trattoria at the Maritime Hotel, is rolling out his latest creation — the Day-After-Thanksgiving pizza-for-one.

An Italian riff on that classic post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich, the pizza is stuffed, naturally. Between its thin double crusts go roasted turkey, sweet potato puree, wild mushrooms, cranberry sauce and gravy.  It’s available for $12 through the end of the year.

Unable to resist a holiday novelty and hungry for leftovers — we didn’t cook Thanksgiving dinner this year — we stopped by for a taste and were surprised to find it wasn’t on the menu. So we asked — it’s also called NY1 pizza in honor of the local TV station — and received a piping, six-slice concoction on a pizza board.

The verdict: interesting — and undeniably unusual, but we’ll stick with Margherita. (We loved the two little oatmeal cookies that came with our bill, btw.)

If you’re awash in leftovers and want to try a turkey pizza at home, here’s the recipe:

THE DAY-AFTER-THANKSGIVING PIZZA

What you need:

A pizza stone

A round pizza cutter

A spatula

Ingredients:

5 oz. Pizza dough (basic pizza recipe)

3 oz. Roast turkey meat

2 oz. Traditional Thanksgiving stuffing

2 oz. Sweet potato puree

2 oz. Cranberry sauce

2 oz. Turkey gravy

5 oz. Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Set oven with pizza stone at 400°F.
2. Press out pizza dough until it reaches 9 inches in diameter.Season with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
3. Place dough in on stone in oven. If you don’t have a pizza stone a flat baking pan will do. Just remember to grease it with a little olive oil so the dough doesn’t stick.
4. Bake for 4 minutes and let rise slightly; the dough should not brown at this stage.
5. Take the dough from the oven and slice in half with a bread knife.
6. Smear one half with sweet potato puree and the other with cranberry sauce.
7. Building from the sweet potato side, add the stuffing and spread evenly.  Pile on the turkey and drizzle with gravy.
8. Close the pizza with the cranberry sauce side and slightly press down.
9. Place back in the oven for 3 minutes and let brown slightly.
10. Remove from oven and cut into 6 equal sized pieces.