Spelt is one of the oldest known cereals and has remained virtually unchanged over thousands of years. It's one of the precursors of soft and durum wheat, but more digestible than these.
People can feel quite intimidated but actually spelt flour, or as we call it “farina di farro” has nearly identical characteristics to regular all purpose flour. It’s very easy to knead and you can simply replace regular flour with it in most recipes, thus making your dough easier to digest.
This is a simple pizza recipe that will yield 4 small 8-10 inches pizzas. The dough is fermented over 24 hours, first at room temperature with folding to add strength by stretching the dough out and over itself, and then in the fridge.
For the topping, I used a delicious Classic Pizza Sauce by Mutti and topped with gorgonzola and oven-roasted potatoes…please don’t judge me for my choice of toppings until you’ve tried it! It’s my all time favourite pizza topping.
Ingredients (for 2 large pizzas)
For the base:
600g white spelt flour
400g lukewarm water
12g fresh yeast
10g salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
For the topping:
1x 400g can of Mutti Classic Pizza Sauce
125g mozzarella, drained and sliced
80g mild gorgonzola
2 medium potatoes, cut into wedges and roasted with olive oil and salt
Method
Prepare the dough by dissolving the yeast and sugar in water and letting it sit for 10 minutes until the yeast gets activated.
In a large bowl, mix flour and salt and start adding the yeasted water in batches while kneading. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and lead until it comes together.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead energetically for about 10 minutes until you obtain a smooth dough. Place in a bowl coated with the remaining 1 tbsp of oil and cover.
After 20 minutes, stretch the dough out and onto itself 4 times turning the bowl 90 each time. Cover and repeat the same 2 more times (for a total of 3 times over 1 hour) at 20 minutes’ intervals. You’ll notice the dough becomes more stretchy with each round.
Finally, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for about 16-18 hours. Remove from the fridge and allow to rest at room temp for 1 hour.
Dust your surface with semolina flour (regular one will work too). Then divide into 4 equal balls and shape each into a pizza. Top with the tomato sauce and allow to ferment for the remaining time at room temp.
Pre-heat the over to 250C. Top the pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola and roasted potatoes and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Buon appetito!
Word of the Day
Farro
(Spelt, pronounced fàr·ro)
