Hybridity

Nothing went the way it was supposed to go with this pizza. Starting with the dough.

I usually mix an 80% hydration dough which has its origins in the Cheese Board Collective book and it lives in the fridge for at least a couple of days before I start using it. Half way through mixing I thought, this ain’t right. I was reading it off the Pizza Dough section of my spreadsheet and I was reading the wrong formula.

Couple of years ago I ran a sourdough course for Matt who now runs Popty Pizza in Llangefni. He had been doing pop-ups for some time and he certainly didn’t need me to tell him about pizza dough. But he hadn’t done sourdough. So I converted his pizza formula to naturally leavened, “00” caputo flour and all. This is what I was reading off the screen. Not only is it only about 54% hydration, I was using strong bread flour and substituted 25% wholemeal. Not surprising I noticed things were not quite as usual. Major hybridity No. 1.

There was a chunk of cooked pork in the freezer and some broccoli that need using which reminded me of a recipe in Peter Reinhart’s Perfect Pan Pizza. Dug it out: “Philly-Style Roast Pork with Broccoli Rabe”.

Hybrids thick and fast. I wasn’t planning on making deep pan pizza, two 200g regular pizzas. I knew what Americans call Broccoli Rabe is not the same as what we Brits call Broccoli – more of a kale style bitter leaf. But if the broccoli needs using, why not use it?

I had my 2 x 200g dough balls relaxing on the work surface ready to go when Sue came down to say she wasn’t feeling right and wasn’t sure how much she would be able to eat. Decided one big tray-baked pizza might be less intimidating than an individual plate-full because you can just take what you want. Placed one dough ball on top of the other and pressed them out to a single base. Rested, then stretched out to full size.

So, layer of grated cheese (Carrie’s very matured Brefi Bach), layer of thinly sliced sauteed onion, red pepper and garlic, cubes of pork, small florettes of blanched broccoli, second sprinkling of cheese. Sprinkling of chopped tomatoes after the pizza came out of the oven.