Today I wanted to share a savoury classic. Pizza. We will make it a bit wild with the seasonal greens available in March.
Go for a walk, forage for some seasonal wild greens and make stinging nettle and wild garlic pizza!
If you decide to try this recipe and realise how easy it is to make you might never order pizza from the store again. This wild pizza recipe can be easily adapted to personal preference and to availability of seasonal plants and fungi.
As to the dough it’s more about the proportions rather than using specific kind of flour. I usually use a mix of 250g of white wheat flower and 250g of whatever I can find in various proportions, just aim for 500g of flour in total. Wholemeal rye, rye, buckwheat, spelt etc all work well.
The recipe for the dough is my adaptation of a recipe from: ‘’Baking Bread with Children’’ Warren Lee Cohen. Really good book by the way, full of straight forward and fool proof recipes but also fun to read and useful if you struggle to inspire your children.
Recipe for one large pizza by large I mean about 13’’ in diameter.
INGREDIENTS:
- 250g white flour (wheat)
- 250g of whatever flour you like, wholemeal rye works well
- 3 teaspoons of sugar TBS (dark, white, honey, maple syrup), that’s to feed the yeast
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 2 teaspoons of dried yeast, you can use live ones as well
- 300ml lukewarm water
- 45ml oil, preferably unrefined with neutral flavour
- 250ml of whatever tomato or pepper sauce you can create. Mixture of ajvar and fermented tomato works brilliantly. I have used my mum’s version of ajvar with tomato, courgette with marjoram and garlic. You can create your own sauce.
- 250g of cheese, I like mozzarella as it’s quite light and neutral but you can use whatever cheese you like
- 150ml of blended allium and nettle leaves, this can be substituted with blitzed garlic mustard, garlic cloves and nettles toppings of your choice, I have used nettle leaves, wood ears, scarlet elf cups, fresh and fermented wild garlic leaves. You can be as creative or as simplistic as you wish. A good handful or 2 should do the job
- The herbs. I have used foraged oregano but you can use whatever herbs you like.
METHOD:
- In lukewarm water dissolve sugar and yeast. Cover with cloth and set aside of 10-20 minutes until you notice bubbles forming.
- Add salt, oil and slowly add the flour mixture. Mix gently. I use hands but you can use machinery. The though should be a bit sticky but you should be able to form a ball shaped figure
- Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and knead for as long as you can, usually 10-20 minutes. Deepening on what’s o the radio or on the length of the podcast you may be listening to. You should be able to form a rubbery ball.
- Oil the dough ball gently. Place it in the large bowl, cover with damp tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until it doubles in size.
- Roll flat to about 1cm, cover with green blend, then evenly spread your tomato/pepper sauce, sprinkle with cheese and toppings of your choice. Let it rise for 10-20 minutes and bake in a preheated to about 200°C oven for 15-20 minutes or until you think is ready.
- Enjoy. You can serve it sprinkled with raw ferment such as garlic or sauerkraut instead of ketchup or bbq sauce