I was watching a food show on SBS (our multicultural tv channel) the other day, and someone made a pizza bianca with sausage and broccoli. I decided I had to make it (with a twist or two). Mr P. gave me a Danish dough whisk for my birthday, and I was keen to try it out. I've been trying to find an easy and tasty pizza dough recipe for yonks, and yes my friends, this is it! I was super stoked. And as regular readers may remember, I'm not a tomato fan so a bianca is a blessing - :-) Yay, no tomatoes!
Though I do have fond memories of eating pizza by the slice in Rome. Going into a pizza bar near the Pantheon and just ordering various slices of delicious pizza by the centimetre - ah, such brilliant times! And then there was McDonald's on the Spanish Steps ... A tiny bit incongruous it seemed to us. I also remember disgustingly awful slices of pizza you could buy as street food in Italy. OMG! So bad. So odd to have the best and the worst in the same place.
pretty darn tasty, my dears! |
(Recipe by Lucy Tweed)
Serves 4: (or 2 according to SBS!)
ingredients:
Dough:
300g. (2 cups) plain flour
330g. (1¼ cups) plain Greek yoghurt
7g. (2¼ tsp) sachet dry yeast
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp fine salt
Topping:
2 tbs EV olive oil
2 chicken or beef sausages (about 200g./7 oz), squeezed out of their casings, and ripped into chunks
1 medium zucchini, sliced thinly
1 garlic clove, crushed or chopped finely
100 mL (1/2 cup) creme fraiche
2 tbs parmesan, grated
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
150g. (5 oz) mozzarella, thinly sliced or grated
85g. (3 oz) button mushrooms, sliced thinly
salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbs parsley, finely chopped (optional)
Method:
Place all the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and stir together well. Add more flour or yoghurt as necessary to get a soft dough (see notes below). Turn out onto a lightly floured bench and knead till smooth (this took about 20 seconds!). Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth/tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove for 20 minutes
In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a medium frypan, throw in your sausage chunks and fry off till almost cooked through and golden-brown on the outside
Then throw in the sliced zucchini and garlic; stir and allow to cook for just 2 or 3 minutes - and put aside till needed
Turn your oven to 220C/425F to warm up
Now take the dough out of the bowl, and knead it briefly (they say), though I found it only needed patting like on a baby's bottom a few times - you couldn't really call it kneading :-)
Shape into a ball and roll out till about 40 cm/16 in. round and 1 cm/ ½ in. thick - see notes below
Place the rolled-out dough onto a pizza tray (or 2) on which you have cast a wee bit of plain flour to stop it sticking
Gently mix together the creme fraiche and parmesan in a bowl, then spread over the dough
Sprinkle with the chilli flakes and oregano, and top with the mozzarella
Place the mushroom slices over the mozzarella
Season with the salt and pepper, and place the vegetables and sausage pieces (and parsley) over the mushrooms
Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbling, and it looks and smells delicious, golden and has a perfectly-cooked bottom :-)
Serve with a green salad
Notes:
My flour was very dry so I ended up adding an extra 100 grams of yoghurt = 430 grams all up
I left my dough to prove for about 25-30 minutes, without any problems
I used 3 medium mushrooms
I don't have a pizza tray that is 40 cm, so I used my usual 30cm/12 in tray and another small, rectangular tray (and I like a thin base so I rolled it out to just under 1 cm)
P.S. I'd only recommend the dough whisk for dry ingredients. It got all glued up with the wet stuff :-)
mix the dough ingredients together |
pat your dough till smooth |
give it a wee knead ét voilà - a beautiful dough |
fry up the sausage chunks and the veg.
place the rolled-out dough on the tray(s) |
add the creme fraiche + parmesan, and mozza and mushies! |
add snags, veg. and seasoning |
pile on the sausages and veg. |
golden and crispy |
hoe in folks! and we did ... |
© Sherry M. |
wow You are a professional pizza baker, ain't you?? I love their rustic look..both crust and the toppings are perfect.
ReplyDeleteha ha thanks angie. I was pleased with how it turned out. that's a great pizza base recipe. so glad i found it.
DeleteI truly love pizza. You are making me hungry!
ReplyDeletethanks tina!
DeleteThat looks lovely. Fascinating that the dough uses yogurt instead of water (which is what all my dough recipes use). Also that there's no real rising time.
ReplyDeleteThe white pizza I've made uses goat cheese blended with milk and an egg and some herbs until I can spread it.
best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
it is such a great dough Mae. soft pliable and easy to roll out. and yes soooo easy - no real kneading or much proving going on.
DeleteGood to see your new dough whisk in action! Although I do like tomato, I'm a fun of pizza bianca -- it lets some of the toppings shine a bit more. Nice recipe -- thanks.
ReplyDeletethanks KR. i so prefer biancas! tomatoes - uurrgh
DeleteSherry, that Danish dough whisk looks like a neat gadget! The sausage and white sauce on the pizza must be pretty wonderful. Fortunately, I missed the bad pizza places in Rome!
ReplyDeletei love the lightness of this pizza. not many toppings; just simple and easy.
DeleteDelicious!
ReplyDeletethanks martha.
DeleteI've used each of these ingredients on pizza but never together. Love the combo!
ReplyDeletethanks MJ. very delish!
Delete😋
ReplyDeletethanks R's R!
DeleteI've become such a fan of using sausage in Italian dishes, I have one on the burner to write up soon. This recipe looks delicious.I have similar memories of pizza in Rome.
ReplyDeletethis recipe was such a winner pauline. i am so glad i finally found a great and easy dough recipe!
DeleteThis is a fantastic and easy recipe! So funny to read about your experiences in Rome. We only had pizza once, and it was underwhelming. Thank goodness it wasn’t at a McDonald’s! I don’t think I could’ve handled that… Usually if I see a McDonald’s I run in the opposite direction. I added this to my pizza collection … it’s the perfect kind of recipe when you find all the ingredients in your refrigerator and say out loud, “Aha!“
ReplyDeletethanks david. i was surprised and pleased at how easy and tasty this dough was to make and eat. and of course any topping you fancy ...
DeleteI'm glad you showed the Danish dough hook. I've never seen one. Also, I never saw a recipe for pizza dough made with yogurt. Yogurt would certainly make a good taste and increase the nutritional value.
ReplyDeleteyes the yoghurt made it very smooth and easy to work with. we loved it!
DeleteWhile I love traditional tomato sauce too, I am not able to turn down a pizza bianca either! The combination of zucchini and sausage looks and sounds delicious. P.S. Serves 1 (according to Ben) :)
ReplyDeletehi again Ben.
DeleteI love pizza but my hubby doesn't. Your home made pizza looks great and I am sure it tastes great too.
ReplyDeletethanks nancy. i was really happy with it, esp. the dough. cheers S
DeleteMmmmmmm. I love tomato sauce, but I also like white pizzas, especially with smoked mozzarella. It’s my new favorite cheese to use. Love your recipe.
ReplyDeletethanks mimi. tomatoes - eek!
Deleteyay to pizza bianca! it was quite delish i have to say. Tee hee - serves 1?! funny man.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of bianca pizzas but generally always order ones with tomato because I love how soft the dough gets under the tomato. I love sausage pizza though!
ReplyDeleteyes the sausage went down well on this pizza! i loved squeezing the meat out of the casings.
DeleteDelicious! What a super summer treat.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
thank you amalia!
DeleteSausage meat is not enough used for pizza topping and it's so good nevertheless! I keep in mind the zucchini idea too :)
ReplyDeletewe really enjoyed the sausage on the pizza. and yes the zucchini was good too. cheers!
DeleteYou know we love pizza in our house, and this sounds fantastic, Sherry! I don't think I've ever used zucchini on a pizza - I need to try that idea out! Homemade pizza is synonymous with weekends in our house! Also, I chuckled at your comment about Rome having the best and worst of foods - I know exactly what you mean! I've eaten some of the tastiest food ever in Rome...and some of the worst. Haha.
ReplyDeletewe loved the zucchini david. i am keen to make this pizza again as it was a real winner.
DeleteSuch a nice flavour for a pizza! those sausages will make a big difference so will give this a try with real Italian sausages.
ReplyDeletethanks raymund. i prefer chicken snags but any sort would do i reckon.
Delete