Any haggis lovers out there?

Yeah, I know, probably not many. But I am an unapologetic fan of the stuff, and I wrote this little article for our local Clan Cameron group about making haggis pizza with our family's Burns Night leftovers. I don't expect Pizza Hut or Domino's will be adding it to their menus anytime soon, but really, it's better than you'd think....

TASTE OF SCOTLAND: HAGGIS PIZZA

We love our Burns Night haggis, but we never manage to finish all of it. What usually happens is we eat it the usual way with leftover neeps and tatties.

This year, though, I thought it would be fun to try something new. Surely there had to be something different I could do with the haggis. So, I searched the Internet and found haggis wontons, haggis paninis, and haggis-stuffed chicken legs. They all sounded tasty and worth trying, but the one that won me over was haggis pizza.

A few bloggers posted about a prepared haggis pizza sold under the Cosmo brand in Tescos and other United Kingdom outlets. The verdict seems to be split along the usual lines: People who like haggis liked the pizza, and people who don’t, well, didn’t.

I decided to make my own haggis pizza. The only tricky part, I figured, would be the crust. I started thinking through the options. The food shows always suggest buying dough from your favorite pizzeria, but frankly I’ve never been brave enough to ask. That leaves the dough that’s sold in a can next to the biscuits and cookie dough at the supermarket, but I’m not a big fan of it. And the plastic-wrapped Bobolis, which I’m not fond of it either. What I do like is the crunchy crust of a well-cooked DiGiorno Rising Crust pizza. And lucky for me, one was already in the freezer. Can’t get any easier than that, right?

I pulled the pizza out of the freezer, unwrapped it and popped it in the oven. About halfway through the cooking time, I pulled it out, added the cold haggis like it was sausage bits, and finished the cooking.

When it was done, I thought it looked as good as the haggis pizza on the Cosmo box. And it tasted – well, probably a lot like you’d imagine haggis pizza to taste. I think the pepperoni was a good addition. Those strong spice notes, along with the well-seasoned tomato sauce, worked well with the haggis and enhanced the overall flavor. I enjoyed it, but to be honest, I never did persuade my husband to try it – even though he never passes on the Burns Night haggis. Maybe I would have had better luck with the haggis wontons.