I cook all my pizzas on the floor of my ESSE’s hot oven. You get that great crisp crust that is so typical of good stone baked pizza. The key is to get the oven really, really hot.
I rate beetroot. Its fantastic colour and taste make it one of our most unique root vegetables. It has a rich, earthy depth of flavour and is silky smooth to eat.
Boiling beetroot is good, but I think roasting it is better. You can roast them skin on, this keeps in all the flavour. Garlic, thyme and olive oil are a must. This combination works well as a warm salad with some boiled eggs or sirloin steak but also makes a fitting winter pizza topping.
Six People
Ingredients
- Makes six small pizzas, at least
- For the dough:
- 250g strong white bread flour
- 250g plain flour
- 5g powdered dried yeast
- 10g salt
- 350ml warm water
- About a tablespoon of olive oil
- A handful of coarse flour (rye, semolina or polenta) for dusting
- The topping ingredients are listed in the method
Method
Make the dough:
To knead by hand, mix the flour, yeast, salt and water in a bowl to form a sticky dough. Add the oil, mix it in, then turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Knead until smooth and silky.
To use a food mixer, add the flour, yeast, salt and water to the mixer, fitted with the dough hook, and mix on low speed. Add the oil, then leave to knead for about ten minutes, until smooth and silky.
Shape into a round, then leave to rise in a clean bowl, covered with a plastic bag, until doubled in size.
For the topping:
Wash and de-stalk a good bunch of young kale. Chop it roughly. Throw it into a pan set over a high heat with a few slugs of olive oil, 2 peeled, sliced garlic cloves and 2 dried chilli’s de-seeded and chopped.
Sweat the kale down; keep it moving around the pan, the kale has to be well wilted and all the water to have evaporated. Season the kale with salt and pepper and set aside.
Take 5 or 6 smallish beetroot and give them a really good scrub under a tap. Throw into a roasting tin with a few tablespoons of olive oil, 3 or 4 smashed garlic cloves and a generous scattering of thyme and rosemary leaves.
Season well with salt and pepper, then roast in a hot oven for 30 – 40 minutes until soft and crispy round the edges.
Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll out each on a well floured work surface as thin as is practical 2- 3 mm max.
Scatter the roast beetroot over your pizza base, tear over some decent mozzarella and 6 or so anchovy fillets. Tear the wilted chard over the pizza. Season with salt, pepper, a glug of olive oil and a few more thyme leaves.
Lastly spoon over any roasting juices left over from cooking beetroot. I use a large base form a tart tin as a peel for putting my pizzas in the oven. You really have to make sure that your peel and your surface is well floured. Semolina or polenta flour is great for this as it is courser Lift the pizza up with your dusted peel.
Carefully slide each pizza onto the floor of your very hot oven (up to max). It’s best to do 1 at a time. It wont take long to cook – 3- 4 mins and there done.
