roasted tomato pizza

so, my recent attempts at bread baking have been fairly unimpressive (in fact, the last loaf was described by my english house guest as ‘nice but could maybe have done with a bit more cooking’. they’re so polite those british). today i realised the starter could be used for more than heavy bread purposes… and decided to make home made pizza from scratch for dinner. base included.

this is a sourdough pizza base. 1.5 cups of starter mixed with over 2 cups of flour (more was added as i went along), a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt. mix it together and knead knead knead for a bit, then set is aside for half an hour in a warm place to rise a bit. knead again, let sit for 5 mins, knead, sit again.

while the dough was resting i made the toppings:

1. roasted quartered tomatoes (no oil or seasoning). once roasted i chopped up fresh basil (home grown – i’m harvesting basil in winter!), some balsamic vinegar and pepper.

2. butternut pumpkin, cubed, roasted with rosemary, oil and a whole garlic clove

i cut the proved dough in half, and rolled each piece out to fit a pizza tray. it was so smooth and perfectly fitted the trays. then topped the bases… the tomatoes went straight on and then a grated pizza cheese on top. on the second one i spread the roasted garlic over the base, then the pumpkin, some sliced mushrooms and grated pizza cheese again. both baked in the hottest possible oven for about 15 minutes. two of us (+ a little foetus) ate both pizzas and a rocket salad!