Heritage Pizza With Fresh Tomato And Pesto Sauce

Ingredients
 
For the pizza base

• 450g Sharpham Park organic heritage flour
• 50g polenta or semolina
• 1x tsp sea salt or smoked salt
• 7g fast action yeast
• 2x tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• 300 ml Sharpham Park organic spelt drink

 
For the tomato sauce*

• 2x tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 400g on the vine cherry tomatoes (removed from the vine and cut in half)
• 3x fresh bay leaves
• 2x stalks of fresh rosemary
• 1x tbsp fresh lemon thyme leaves
• 1/2 chicken stock pot / cube

 
For the pesto*

• 50g fresh basil
• 1/2 tsp smoked salt
• 1x small garlic clove (peeled)
• 40g pine nuts (toasted in a dry pan and cooled)
• 20g parmesan (grated)
• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil

 
For the toppings

• 1x courgette (finely sliced)
• 1x leek (finely sliced)
• 4x chestnut mushrooms (finely sliced)
• 2x tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 150g smoked mozzarella or normal mozzarella (scarmorza or galbani for pizza)
• 50g Kalamata pitted olives

 
 
Method
 
Pre-heat the oven to 235oc, Gas Mark 8.

1. First make the pizza dough. Warm the Sharpham Park organic spelt drink then place in a jug with the yeast and olive oil stirring to combine and then set aside.
    
2. Mix together the Sharpham Park organic heritage flour, polenta, salt and sugar in a large bowl to combine . Add to the bowl the jug of your spelt drink mix, bring together to form a sticky dough then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth. Brush a little olive oil around a clean bowl and place the dough inside covering with some clingfilm and setting aside somewhere warm to rise for 30 mins.
    
3. Whilst the dough is rising you can make the tomato sauce. Place all the ingredients for the sauce into a large pan, bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer covering with a lid and then cook initially for 15 mins and then a further 15 mins without the lid on. Now remove the bay leaves and rosemary stalks from the sauce and blitz to a smooth sauce in a nutri-bullet or hand blender then set aside.
    
4. In the 30 minutes you are waiting for the sauce to cook you can make the pesto. Put all the ingredients into a nutri-bullet or food processor and blitz together, spoon into a bowl and set aside.
    
5. You can now get your toppings ready. Place all the chopped veg onto a plate, drizzle the oil over along with some seasoning and toss together then set aside.
    
6. Now you can go back to the dough. Remove from the bowl and cut into 4x equal pieces forming them into balls. Place a large dry frying pan on a high heat , roll out the first ball onto a floured surface making a circle roughly 27cm in diameter, place this into the hot pan and cook for 1 min per side then place onto a baking sheet. Do this with all the dough balls (this helps form a crispy base without using a pizza stone.)
    
7. Now it is time to build the pizzas. Carefully spoon some tomato sauce onto each base leaving a 1 cm gap at the edge. Scatter the cheese over followed by some leeks, courgette, mushrooms and olives. Finish off by spooning small amounts of pesto all over the pizzas.
    
8. Now cook in the pre-heated oven where they will take about 6-8 mins then remove and slice.

*Cooks note: These can be made earlier on in the day and kept in the fridge until ready to cook, you can also freeze them. If you make double the tomato sauce you can use it for a pasta sauce and try adding in a spoonful of pesto to this for a really great pasta dish .