Recipe: Pizzette with fig and gorgonzola
My favorite pizza: a bianca (meaning without tomato sauce) with sweet, jammy figs and the salty, creamy sharpness of gorgonzola. Wild fennel adds a wonderfully fragrant note and a few flecks of color. If you can’t find fennel flowers, serve a salad of shaved Florence fennel alongside it. Peppery rocket leaves and strips of Italian cured ham (such as prosciutto crudo) are also welcome additions. Walnuts are delicious too. You can make this as a sharing dish for a late-summer dinner, or have one each.
Letitia Clark, who shares her recipe with us, adds semola, which makes the dough extra spongy and crisp, but you can also simply use (more) strong white flour. Make the dough around lunchtime if you want to serve the pizzas in the evening, so it has plenty of time to rise.
If you want rocket/basil/fennel/ham on your pizzette, it’s better to add these ingredients after baking rather than before; as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven.
How to make pizzette with fig and gorgonzola
- Mix and knead the dough ingredients in a stand mixer (or by hand) until smooth and elastic (it’s a fairly wet dough, so a dough scraper will come in handy for scraping the dough off the work surface or out of the bowl). Knead for at least 10–15 minutes to allow the semola to absorb all the water (this is easiest in a machine with a dough hook).
- Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Leave to rise for 3–4 hours, stretching it occasionally: run your fingers along the sides of the bowl to pull a flap of dough away from the edge, then fold the flap toward the center. Do this all around the dough ball (this helps develop the gluten).
- Once the dough has risen well and doubled in size (after stretching and folding it at least twice), it is ready to use. Place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to roll it out and bake; or divide it into 4 equal pieces, immediately roll them out into small pizza rounds and dust them with extra semola or flour if necessary. Place them on baking sheets.
- Preheat the oven to 230 °C fan-assisted or 250 °C conventional.
- Scatter the fig and gorgonzola pieces over the dough rounds (along with any additional toppings of your choice) and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes, until golden brown and the topping is bubbling.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with the fennel flowers (and rocket/basil, if you like) plus a few more drops of good olive oil.
Title: Wild Fig & Fennel
Author: Letitia Clark
Price: €29,99
Publisher: Becht
In this beautiful cookbook by Letitia Clark, you’ll cook delicious Italian dishes all year round with the best products of every season. From meat and fish to vegetarian dishes, and from antipasti to pasta—there’s something for everyone. For example, also try these delicious gnudi with sage butter (very easy to make!) by Letitia.
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