Mint and Parmesan St. Louis Pizza

Let me be honest, this is a cheat pizza. Meaning, we’re using baking powder to leaven the dough and not yeasts, as is the way when making a St. Louis. Having said that, I have adapted this recipe into another way to use up sourdough starter when you don’t have time for a full prove which adds a lovely flavour to the dough. I have also opted for an alternative flavour pairing (compared to the usual tomato, basil and mozzarella) to make use of herbs that are growing strongly in the garden at the moment. I first came across this combo when working with a chef from southern Italy, Calabria. Of course, he claimed it was an Italian invention, but I have since been told it is Sicilian AND Jewish. Whoever came up with it, like most things in life, it’s great on pizza.

I first learned how to make pizza when working for a pizzeria many years ago. We worked in a tiny kitchen with four stone tiled ovens that ran at 400C / 750F, but thankfully, pizza making doesn’t have to be this brutal at home. My preference for pizza is thin crust, crispy, with a light and fluffy inside. The tomato should be smooth and acidic and not sweetened with sugar, and toppings should be minimal (otherwise we lose the beautiful simplicity of Italian cooking). If you prefer Neapolitan, Chicago, Sicilian, New York, Calzone, Roman etc then that’s totally fine, this dough should handle them all. But for this recipe, we’ll be following the style of a St. Louis. We’ll also be making a garlic infused oil to dress the pizza, a trick I picked up whilst learning to make focaccia at Le Cordon Bleu (name dropping) and have used in as much savoury baking as possible ever since.

An interesting side note with this recipe, because we’re using bicarb and baking powder to leaven our dough, I thought I’d explain why we’re using both and what that achieves. Firstly, baking powder is temperature dependent. It is actually bicarb that has been chemically bonded with acid, but won’t react until it reaches 80C / 176F or above. This is great as it means we can rest the dough without worrying that our raising agent will be spent before cooking. Bicarbonate of soda is different, it activates the moment it touches something acidic. This works for us as we’ll be rolling out dough very thinly, then dressing it in tomato paste. The moment the tomato paste sinks into the first layer of the dough we will get our second kick, then slide the pizza in the oven to finish off.

Pizza Recipe
Makes 2x 16 inches

Dough:

• 250g Wholemeal self raising flour

• 50g 00 flour

• 100g Sourdough starter (of any kind)

• 1tsp Baking powder

• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda

• 300g Natural yoghurt OR 200ml of milk with 50ml of olive oil (the yoghurt makes a softer pizza base, the milk and oil make it crispier)

• 1tsp Sea salt

Sauce and toppings:

• 400g Passata / sofrito

• 4 Cloves of garlic, crushed

• 100ml Olive oil

• 3 Large mushrooms, torn by hand

• 200g Rainbow chard, roughly chopped

• A handful of freshly picked mint

• 100g of parmesan, finely grated.

Step 1.

Measure out your ingredients for your dough whilst preheating the oven at 250C / 480 F. Combine them in the bowl, then kneed them for 5 minutes until the dough becomes more elastic and cleans the bowl itself. Cover the dough and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes whilst you prepare your toppings.

Step 2.

Peel and crush your garlic cloves in a small bowl and set aside to infuse whilst you cook your pizza. If you’d prefer to sauté your chard and mushrooms to add to the pizza after baking it, I’d advise frying them in this oil too.

Step 3.

There are two ways to cook this pizza and both are delicious. I’ll include both in the recipe as I prefer the pan started approach, but for those who want a more straight forward recipe, the baking tray is much easier if you’re trying to cook multiple pizza at once. The key differences are that the pan started pizza ends up with a more charred base on the bottom but a lighter, more delicate upper crust. The baking tray pizza ends up crispier all over but is easier to handle.

Pan started: Half your dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 2mm thick. Place a frying pan over a hob on full blast and let it get roasting hot without any oil in it. When it is hot enough, place your pizza base in the pan and begin dressing it with tomato and toppings right away. If the pan is hot enough, you’ll notice the dough bulging and bubbling as it cooks, instantly forming a crust on the bottom of the pizza that will stop it sticking to the dry frying pan. After 3-4 minutes your pizza should be topped with all but your garlic oil, mint and parmesan. Carefully tip it from the pan directly onto the oven shelf and drizzle with olive oil before shutting the door to bake for 10-15 minutes.

Baking tray: Roll out your dough in the same way as described above, but place a flat, metal baking tray in the oven to get hot whilst you do so. When the dough is ready, pull the tray out of the oven and carefully place the pizza base on it. Return it to the oven for 3-4 minutes, then pull the base back out and flip it out onto a chopping board. With the base now upside down (as seen in the image below), dress the pizza with tomato and your toppings (avoid using the garlic oil, mint and parmesan yet), then return the pizza to the oven this way up, directly onto the oven shelf. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the crust is crispy and golden.

Step 4.

Whichever technique you choose, your pizza will be ready in 15 minutes maximum. At this point, drizzle the pizza with the garlic oil the moment it comes from the oven as the heat will lightly cook the garlic. Rip the mint by hand and scatter it over the pizzas, then grate as much parmesan as you’d like. Chop them up and enjoy.