How great is pizza? Stupid question, I know. I've found lately that I'm getting more into white pizzas - i.e. no tomato sauce base. This one was a particularly delicious experiment that came about because I bought too many potatoes! What a silly thing to do! (Again...) The pork sausages went beautifully with the lovely pops of basil pesto, with a light scattering of rocket just to fresh everything up. Now it's healthy, right?
Makes 1 large pizza
Prep: 1.5 hours
Cook: 10 minutes
Ingredients
Pizza dough:
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp active-dry yeast
1 cup plain flour, plus extra to dust
1 tsp salt
Pizza topping:
2 pork sausages, casing removed and insides formed into little meatballs
1 cup shredded cheese (pizza blend naturally works best for this!)
1 large red royale potato, very thinly sliced (use a mandoline if you possess such a thing, otherwise sharpen that knife!)
2 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
1 tbsp dried Italian herbs
Olive oil spray
2 tbsp basil pesto
For the pesto:
1 bunch basil, leaves picked
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 clove garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
Method:
To make the pizza dough, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add salt. Pour in the water and yeast and use a butter knife to combine into a shaggy dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together, kneading, for at least 10 minutes. Spray a large bowl with oil to prevent sticking, add the dough, cover with a tea towel and set aside for an hour until it has doubled in size.
While the dough is doing its thing, pop all of the pesto ingredients into a food processor, a blender, a Nutribullet or whatever tool you have and blitz it to a yummy pesto consistency. This means it should be a little chunky but you won't be seeing any basil leaves or whole pine nuts anymore.
Preheat oven to 200C. If you have a pizza stone, heat it up in the oven. If not, use an oven tray turned upside down. Place a sheet of baking paper between the tray and the dough.
Punch the dough back down and knead it on the bench for another minute. Shape it into a large circle (use a rolling pin to get you started, but I find I always end up finishing it by hand.)
Carefully place the dough on the heated stone or tray. Spray the entire surface of the dough with olive oil, then layer up the potatoes and cheese over the base. Scatter over the dried herbs and garlic, then squeeze the sausages to remove the meat directly onto the pizza base.
Bake your pizza for ten minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese beautifully melted. Dollop over the fresh pesto and rocket and serve immediately!
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