Wild Garlic Pizza
Wild garlic pizza is a seasonal version of garlic bread, great as a snack, pre-dinner nibble with drinks, or lunch with a green salad on the side.
Ingredients
For the pizza dough:
400g tipo 00 flour
100g fine semolina flour
1/2 teaspoon fine seasalt
1 sachet (7g) dry yeast (or 15g fresh yeast)
320ml water (ideally at 38ºc)
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
For the topping:
Wild garlic butter (see recipe here)
Fresh wild garlic leaves
Flaky salt (I use Maldon)
Dry oregano
Method
In a large bowl, place both flours and the salt, and mix thoroughly with a fork to combine.
In a small bowl, place the yeast, sugar and water. Stir briefly, then allow to sit for 2 minutes. Stir again until fully combined and no lumps.
Make a well in the middle of the flours, and pour in the liquid mixture.
With a fork, begin to bring in the sides of the flour into the centre, stirring to combine as you make your way outwards.
When all of the flour has been mixed in, tip on to a floured surface and with your hands begin to knead. Knead for roughly 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, springy and has a lot of bounce. If dough feels too wet after kneading and sticks to the counter, sprinkle with more 00 flour, but be careful not to overdo it. Bring into a clean and smooth ball.
Place in a large bowl dusted with 00 four, sprinkle a bit more flour on top, cover with a damp cloth, and leave in a warm draft free environment to proof for a minimum of 1 hour.
Once the dough has doubled in size, tip it back on to your work surface, and knock it back with your hands, pushing back some of the air. With a knife, split it into 200g pieces, rolling each one into a ball.
Flour a baking tray or flat surface lightly. Place each dough ball on to it, ensuring that enough space is kept between them. Cover with clingfilm, and allow to proof for a second time, between 30 minutes and 1 hour.
If you are using immediately, roll out pizzas on to a floured work surface at this stage.
If making ahead, wrap each dough ball individually in clingfilm and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
Pre-heat oven to highest setting possible - 250ºc
If you have a top grill function in your oven, it’s a good idea to use it.
If you have a pizza stone, place it into the oven when it is cold, and allow the pizza stone to heat gradually with the oven.
Roll our your dough, one by one. With your hands, flatten the dough ball, then begin to push with your hands from the centre to the outer edges of the disk, stretching the dough rather than pushing it down. This will allow the dough to retain some of its airiness and avoid it becoming too dense.
When the oven is hot enough, place a stretched out pizza dough on to your baking surface, brush with 3 tablespoons of the wild garlic butter, place some whole wild garlic leaves on top, then cook on the top shelf of the oven as close as possible to the heat source for around 10 minutes.
Keep an eye on the pizza at all times as it cooks extremely fast when so close to the heat source.
Once ready, serve with flaky salt sprinkled on top as well as oregano, and serve immediately.