I made this for my friend who is an avid supporter of my sourdough pizzas, simply to give her something different to try. She may have protested slightly at the thought of having a “salad pizza”, but at the end of a week’s stay with me in my lockdown food bubble, this turned out to be one of her favourite foods we ate. And we ate a lot of foods!
This is easily adaptable to be vegetarian by omitting the Parma ham, and was in part inspired by a famous pizza chain’s vegan pizza dish I saw an old colleague have some 15 years ago. I must admit that back then, before I had started my path down nutrition, the thought of a cheeseless salad pizza did not appeal in the way it would do now.
If you are vegan, the base pizza dough recipe is completely vegan. You can still top it with the salad and grilled peaches, and it would be delicious as is, but I suspect the vegan dairy-free alternative cheese would make a wonderful addition to it.
Makes 1 pizza, serves 2
Ingredients
- 1/3 portion of pizza dough
- Semolina for dusting
- 100g passata
- 2 large ripe peaches or nectarines, cut into wedges
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 80g rocket, watercress, baby leaf spinach or pea shoots
- 3 slices of Parma ham
- 1 ball burrata
- Drizzle of balsamic glaze
Method
- Preheat the oven to maximum temperature (mine is 275°C fan) and place a heavy bottom tray/pizza stone in the middle of the oven. Allow the oven to reach temperature and wait a further 10 minutes to ensure the tray is fully heated.
- Dust the work surface with semolina, take a ball of dough and place it on the semolina and finely dust with flour.
- Using your fingers, press around the edge 1 cm in to form a crust.
- Using the palm of your hand, press inside this line to flatten the dough in the centre.
- When you can press it no more, pick the dough up and using your knuckles, gently ease the dough out so it becomes thin and slightly transparent. Take care not to rip the dough. Ensure the base has an even covering of semolina.
- Transfer the pizza base onto a pizza peel.
- Add 100g passata over the base, up to but not on the crust part of the dough.
- Transfer the pizza onto the tray in the oven using a strong and decisive forward and back motion to slide the pizza off the peel.
- Cook the pizza for 6-7 minutes depending on the temperature of your oven. The pizza should have very dark golden blistered crusts, and the passata will have evaporated some of the liquid.
- Meanwhile, heat a heavy-based griddle pan over a high heat.
- Coat the peach wedges in the oil before grilling for 1-2 minutes per side.
- Remove the pizza and allow to rest for 1 minute.
- Scatter the pizza with the salad leaves and grilled peaches. Tear the Parma ham and evenly distribute over the pizza. Place the burrata ball in the centre and drizzle with the balsamic glaze.
- Best eaten straight away.
Per serving: 756kcal/ 23.0g fat/ 11.4g saturated fat/ 88.7g carbohydrates/ 8.3g fibre/ 27.9g protein