Ingredients
500g Strong white bread flour
½ pint tepid water
1 teaspoon easy yeast or 1 sachet of yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 tablespoons pizza sauce or pasata
1 red onions, sliced into 5mm rings
1 pear sliced into 20
150g gorgonzola, chopped into pieces
1 tablespoons walnuts, chopped
4 handfuls rocket
Olive oil to serve
Method
Put the yeast in a bowl, with the sugar and cover with the warm water. Leave this to the side for 5 minutes. In a bowl (or even better, a mixer or bread maker), add the flour, yeast and sugar solution, salt and olive oil. Mix together to form a soft dough. If doing by hand turn the bread out onto a floured surface, then with a firm fist, knead the bread, for 10 minutes. (Kneading is when you push and fold the bread over and over again – use flour to make sure the dough does not stick to your hands). This is can be quite tiring, but do keep it up as it’s the kneading that changes the texture from being cake like to bread like. The way you will know your bread is ready is when the dough springs back when you push it. If your doing this in a mixer then simply switch it on for 10 minutes, if doing it in a bread maker just switch it onto the dough setting, where it will both knead the dough and give it its first rise!
Place the dough in a large clean mixing bowl, which has had a dribble of oil wiped over it. Cover with some oiled cling film and leave in a warm place such as an airing cupboard or near a warm cooker for 1 hour. When you come back to it, the dough will have doubled in size. Remove the cling film and stick your fist into the dough. It will knock all the air out of it. This feeling is so satisfying. Knock the dough around for a minute or until it has deflated. It is now ready to shape. Heat an oven to 200C. Cut the dough into 4 then roll out each piece into a flat thin round pizza base.
Top each pizza with 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, some onions rings, pear slices, some Gorgonzola, 1 tablespoon of walnuts. Lay the pizzas on baking trays and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. You want to base to be golden and crispy and the cheese to be melted and gooey. When they have finished cook top with a handful of rocket and a drizzle of olive oil and serve.
Credit
Gizzi Erkine for britishonions.co.uk.
