Pesto Pizza Pillows

I love taking a bread ferment out of the fridge after its overnight sleep .  The sweet sour smell of the yeast, the soft pillow of risen dough and it's honeycomb texture and how it adds so much flavour to bread.  Yet I rarely use it in its own right.  So when I had some left over when making Richard Bertinet's dark rye bread with raisins I decided  it was too good to waste.

 

An overnight ferment

Honecomb Dough

Lurking in the fridge was some leftover pesto, a red pepper, parma ham, cherry tomatoes  and cheese = Pizza with a pesto base. 

Knocked back and rested dough

Ready for the oven

OK so the outcome wasn't exactly the lovely thin crust pizza that I'd envisaged, but the pizza pillows built on leftovers were definitley worth eating.

Pizza Pillow

 Ingredients:

Ferment (about 300g)
Pesto (a couple of dessert spoons)
Red Pepper (1 cut into strips and roasted in a little oil)
Parma ham (2 slices)
Cherry Tomatoes (about 4)
Cheese (a little grated)

Heat the oven to 220 C

Take the ferment and form into 3 balls leave to rest for 10 minutes.  Spread the balls into thin circles.  Spread over some pesto and top with the ham, tomatoes and roasted pepper.  Sprinkle over a little grated cheese and put into the hot oven for 10-15 minutes until the base is cooked through and beginning to crisp at the edges and the cheese has melted over the top.


Ferment (only 300g of this needed):

5g     Dried Yeast
500g Strong White Flour
10g   Salt
350g Water

Mix together the Yeast, Flour and Salt.  Stir in the water.  Kneed the dough until it's smooth, form into a ball and place it in a bowl in the fridge covered with a cloth overnight or leave for 6 hours at room temperature.

Pesto (much better than shop bought)

100g Pine Nuts
100g Basil
100g Parmesan finely grated
3 Large Cloves of  Garlic
Olive Oil (enough to form the mix into a paste)
Squeeze of lemon
Salt
Pepper

Whizz everything together in a food processor (or a pestle and mortar if you've got patience and biceps)