Summer garden pizza
Makes 6-8 pizzas
INGREDIENTS FOR THE PIZZA DOUGH
• 1 kg plain flour or 00 flour or 800g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g dried yeast sachets
• 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
FOR THE TOPPING
• 100g mozzarella di buffalo, sliced
• 100g regular mozzarella, grated
• 150g fresh spinach, lightly sautéed
• 100g wild garlic pesto
• 100g purple sprouting broccoli
• 20g fresh garden thyme
• 20g fresh fennel
• 20g chives
• 50g cherry tomatoes
METHOD 1
To make the dough, sieve the flour and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into 650ml of lukewarm water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. 2 Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough. 3 Place the ball of dough in a large flourdusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
4 Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required.
5 If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas. 6 Heat your oven to the highest temperature it offers. Roll the pizza dough to the desired circumference. Spread the garlic pesto to within a couple of centimetres of the edge. Place the sliced buffalo mozzarella on top, then clumps of sautéed spinach in between the mozzarella, then top with sprouting broccoli and cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with the chopped garden herbs (hold back some fresh herbs for garnishing afterwards) and grated mozzarella. 7 Bake in a very hot oven (or pizza oven if you have one) for one minute, or until the top is bubbling and the dough is crispy. Top with edible flowers and fresh chopped herbs to serve.