Pizza Bianca with Chillies and Bresaola

Pizza night!

Say you'll come over and have a slice of pizza and a glass of red wine with me?  We could eat chunks of dark chocolate for dessert. We could watch the third season of Downton Abbey... all of it. We could talk until 3am. Wanna?

Pizza Bianca with Chillies and Bresaola

Pizza Dough adapted from Delicious

Makes 4 x 30cm pizzas

For the Pizza Dough:

500g plain flour

1 tablespoon sea salt flakes

1 sachet of dried yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

300ml warm water

50ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to grease

For the Toppings:

Extra virgin olive oil

Dried oregano

400g buffalo mozzarella

Fresh chillies, your favourite kind, finely chopped

20 very fine slices of bresaola

Fresh basil leaves

Sea salt flakes

Make the Dough:

Combine the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. In a separate bowl, combine the honey, oil and the warm water. Gradually add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic dough. 

Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl. Rub the top of the dough with a little oil so that it doesn't form a crust. Cover with cling wrap and place in a warm spot for 1 - 2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto to a floured surface and punch down with your fist. Knead lightly, then divide into 4 balls. Place each ball into a small oiled bowl and cover again with cling film. Place in a warm spot until doubled in size again.

Roll each ball out to make 4 x 30 cm round bases. Place each base on a lightly oiled pizza tray.

Make the Pizza:

Preheat the oven to as hot as it will go. If you have a pizza stone, then put that in the oven to heat up too.

Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over each pizza base. Sprinkle about half a teaspoon of dried oregano over  each base. Tear the mozzarella and divide equally over the pizzas and then sprinkle with chopped chillies. Drizzle again with a little extra virgin olive oil. 

Bake the pizzas one at a time. If you are using a pizza stone then you can either place the tray on top of the stone, or slide the pizza off the tray and on to the stone. Otherwise, just put the trays into the oven.  

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the base is cooked through, the cheese has melted and the chillies are slightly scorched.

Lay the bresaola sliced on top of the pizzas and sprinkle with fresh basil leaves and sea salt flakes. Slice and eat.