I have no idea why it took me so long to do this! The dough is incredibly soft and smooth (a baby’s bottom would be an appropriate metaphor), it doesn’t tear when stretching it to size and it bakes to a sturdy, slightly chewy, utterly delicious crust. It was so good that I’ve decided to split Betty into two just so I can have a pizza-specific starter in the fridge for further pizza experimentation. The new starter will be called Peggy-Sue… because Peggy is short for Margaret… as in Margherita… as in… yeah, you get it. 😉
These pizzas were topped with…
fresh tomatoes, black olives and basil, and
fresh spinach and ricotta.
Makes 2 x 28cm pizzas
Ingredients
150g 100% hydration starter
400g Type 0, bread or all-purpose (plain) flour
180g water
30g olive oil
7g salt
Note: I took 100g mature starter, brought it to room temperature for an hour, fed it with 25g each of flour and water and let it ferment for 3 hours.
Directions
Mix the starter and water together in a large bowl then add the flour and mix to a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes.
Add the oil and mix in, then add the salt and knead until dough is soft and elastic, 8-10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in a stand mixer.
Place dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled – about 3 hours, depending on ambient temperature.
Turn dough out and cut in half, being careful not to degas it too much. Gently form into balls and let rest, covered, for another hour.
Gently pull the dough out to size and make your pizza as usual.
pizzarossa 
Looks soooo good!
The leftover pieces held up well for lunch today too – not soggy at all! I’m a convert 🙂
What a delightful looking pizza – enough to give me the munchies.
Thanks! Glad I could make you hungry! 🙂
Ooh, those look delicious. I’ve only made sourdough pizza crust once. It was good, but I’m usually not thinking far enough ahead to do it. What would be the advantage of having a separate starter just for pizza dough?
Hi Amanda,
It’s mostly because I do my week’s baking in one frantic day on the weekend and this way I can use at least half or even 2/3 of the required starter from my mature stock and just feed it up a bit to get bubbly and keep the flavour intense. I’ll keep my first starter for my weekly bread and use the second one for crackers, pizza dough etc. I’m also a bit paranoid about killing it, so if I have two there’s a back-up! LOL!
Incredibly delicious looking pizzas! Those toppings look absolutely yum – I love the way ricotta cheese browns in the oven. One day I’ll have to find the time to make my own sourdough pizza base. It looks so soft and light..
There’s a bit of mozzarella on there too, which browns nicely. I’m loving the homemade ricotta – so many uses for it!
Your pizza looks fantastic! We are having sourdough pizza for dinner tonight! 🙂 YUM!
I’m so excited to make my next batch – I never realised how much fun it would be and how great it would taste 🙂