Spinach Artichoke Pizza + Updated Pizza Dough
A chewy, deeply flavoured pizza crust with spinach and artichokes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Makes: 2 10" pizzas
Ingredients
For the pizza base
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp yeast,slightly heaped
- 1 and ½ tsps salt
- 1 and ¼ cups room temp water, plus more if needed
For the pizza topping
- 200 gms fresh spinach
- 1 can artichokes (400 gms)
- 6 to 7 ripe tomatoes
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Feta and mozzarella cheese, as needed
Instructions
- To make the dough, simply mix all the pizza base ingredients in a large bowl, till you have a wet, shaggy dough. Add two more teaspoons of water if the dough feels a little dry. You do not need to form a ball of dough, or bother with making it smooth. Simply mix it up, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature for 12 to 16 hours. To give it a head-start, preheat the oven to 100 C for a couple of minutes, turn it off and place the dough inside it. Leave it there for the rest of the rise time.
- After 12 to 16 hours, the dough should have doubled, look fermented and smell slightly sour. It should also feel very soft and sticky and a little wet.
- About half an hour before you begin forming the dough into pizzas, preheat the oven to 250 C (usually its highest temp, as the oven needs to be hot hot hot) and lightly spray two baking pans with oil, then sprinkle with flour and set aside.
- While the oven is preheating, get your toppings ready. Rinse the spinach well, drain it of all excess water and chop it into small ribbons. Drain the artichokes and set aside.
- For the tomatoes, chop them up roughly, then puree them. Pass through a sieve, so that 90% of the water is drained. Mix in the minced garlic and about 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.
- Now, turn the ready dough out on to a very well-floured counter. It will be sticky and will require floured fingertips to be prised out of the bowl, don't worry. Once you've got it out, sprinkle the top with a bit more flour and form it into a ball. Cut this in half using a sharp knife and form each half into a ball again.
- Hold each ball of dough vertically, and let it stretch and fall away from your hands a couple of times before letting it land on the prepared tray. With floured fingertips, stretch and pull the dough to a roughly round/rectangular shape, about 10 inches wide. Don't stretch it too thin, because it needs to be able to hold the toppings.
- Spread half the tomato mixture on the base, leaving about 1/2 an inch border. Top with half the spinach and then half the artichokes, squeezing out any excess brine as you go. Finish with shredded mozzarella and crumbled feta, whatever your heart desires.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the crust has browned lightly, the cheese has melted (mine also got quite nice and brown because the oven temp is high) and your kitchen smells like a small Italian pizzeria. Rotate the tray as needed if one side is browning more than the other. Slice and serve hot hot hot. Use a metal spatula and sharp knife or pizza cutter to help you get off any sticky slices. Repeat with the remaining dough and toppings. Happy eating!
Notes
*For this recipe, it is particularly important to measure the flour correctly. Fluff up the flour with a spoon in the container itself, then scoop and lightly fill the measuring cup up to the top without shaking or tapping the cup, then using the back of a knife, scrape the top of the cup to remove any excess flour.
*Prep-time does not include rising time.