As you probably know, the discard from your starter can be put towards lots of other recipes. I've already tried crumpets and pancakes, so at the weekend I used the large quantity of discard starter that I had built up that week to make two pizzas.
This was really fun, and something we could do together on Saturday night before enjoying our work in the summer sun in the garden. We kept it simple: pepperoni and chilli, and rather than bake in the oven, we made them in a frying pan and then finished them off under the grill. Bellissimo!
I mixed all of the ingredients together using a stand mixer and then kneaded with the dough hook for about seven minutes. Then, I greased the bowl with vegetable oil, covered and left it to rise for nearly five hours. At this point, it was about 6.30pm. I floured the worktop and then split the dough in half and rolled them into two balls. I left to rest for about 15 minutes and then flattened each out before picking them up and rotating them around to get each to form into two large discs.
Meanwhile, I pre-heated a cast iron frying pan on a low heat on the hob (no oil) and when it was hot added the first flat disc into the pan. I left this for a few minutes before spreading a couple of tablespoons of passata around the base, some slices of mozzarella and a generous spread of pepperoni slices. Finally, I drizzled some olive oil around the crust edges, sprinkled some chopped red chilli on the pepperoni and then left everything to cook in the pan for a few minutes. When the base had started to brown, I transferred the pizza directly on the oven shelf (set to grill at 180C). We then got on with the second pizza following the same method, before moving the first pizza down a shelf and adding the second to the top shelf to get a good ten minutes under the grill.
All in all, quite a success! The second pizza was definitely better than the first, and this probably benefited from a hotter pan, and perhaps because it spent less time in total in the hot oven. The whole thing was really fresh and honestly better than anything you can buy from a shop - almost restaurant quality and certainly something I know we'll get better at the more we do it. Next Saturday, here we come!
