EMILY & GISELLE ROUX’S WHITE PIZZA WITH LARDONS AND CRÈME FRAÎCHE
Mother and daughter Giselle and Emily share their love of family cookery in their first cookbook, New French Table.
This dough recipe makes enough for 2 large pizzas, but if you only want to make one, you can freeze half after the first prove to use at a later date – and use half the amount of topping.
Hands-on time 30min, plus proving. Cooking time
about 30min. Makes 2 x 30cm (12in) pizzas
for the pizza dough 500g (1lb 2oz) plain flour 15g (½oz) fresh yeast 50g (2oz) olive oil, plus extra for greasing 300ml (10fl oz) lukewarm water 10g (¼oz) fine sea salt for the topping 4tbsp olive oil 2 large white onions, finely sliced 2tsp dried mixed herbs 400g (14oz) smoked bacon lardons 200g (7oz) crème fraîche 60g (2½oz) Roquefort cheese, cut into small pieces
Place the flour, yeast, olive oil and 200ml (7fl oz) of the water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Beat on a medium speed for at least 2min until the dough begins to form a ball. Dissolve the salt in the remaining water and pour gradually into the dough until it is all incorporated, then leave to mix for 5–10min, until the dough has formed a smooth ball. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Set aside to rise at room temperature for 2hr, or until the dough has doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, turn it out on to a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal-sized pieces (if making one pizza, wrap one piece of dough in clingfilm and freeze at this stage).
Roll each piece out to form
a base about 5mm (¼in) thick. Transfer to a floured pizza or baking tray (or line with greaseproof paper) and set aside to prove at room temperature for 30min.
Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan) mark 7. Meanwhile, make your topping: Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add sliced onions and cook for 5min, stirring occasionally. Season with salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs. Once onions are tender, remove them from the pan and set aside on kitchen paper.
Dry-fry the lardons in a non-stick frying pan over a medium–high heat. Once they have rendered their water and begin to colour, immediately remove them from the heat.
Once the dough has proved, spread the crème fraîche over the dough and scatter the cooked onions and lardons on top. Bake in the oven for 10min, then reduce the temperature to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6 and cook for another 10min. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the Roquefort all over to melt, and season with pepper. Serve the pizzas hot.