Einkorn pizza

Einkorn dough tears if you stretch and toss it like Neapolitan dough. Press it out on parchment with oiled fingers instead. It bakes into a thin, crisp, nutty base.

• Makes 4 pizzas, about 25 cm (10 in)
• Active 30 min
• Total about 3 hours, or up to a day ahead

Dough

• 500 g fresh-milled whole einkorn flour
• 330 g lukewarm water (66% hydration)
• 3 g instant yeast (1 tsp)
• 10 g fine salt (1¾ tsp)
• 15 g olive oil (1 tbsp), plus extra for your hands

Simple tomato sauce

• 400 g tin whole San Marzano or plum tomatoes
• 1 small garlic clove, grated
• 1 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp salt, a pinch of dried oregano

Crush the tomatoes by hand or blitz them briefly, then stir in the rest. Don't cook it.

Method

1. Mix the flour, water and yeast until no dry flour is left. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
2. Add the salt and oil, then squeeze and fold them in for 2–3 minutes with a wet hand. The dough will be soft and tacky. If it's too wet to handle at all, add up to 30 g more flour, but no more than that.
3. Cover and leave for 1½–2 hours at room temperature, until puffy and about 1½ times its size. To make it ahead, refrigerate it after 30 minutes and use it within 24 hours. Einkorn gluten breaks down in long cold ferments, so don't leave it longer.
4. Divide into four pieces of about 210 g. With oiled hands, gently round each one, then rest them under a cloth for 20–30 minutes (an hour if they came from the fridge).
5. Heat the oven as hot as it goes, 260–290 °C (500–550 °F), with a pizza steel or stone on the top rack, for at least 45 minutes.
6. Put a dough ball on a sheet of parchment. With oiled fingertips, press it out from the centre into a 25 cm round, leaving a slightly thicker rim. Don't lift and stretch it.
7. Top lightly: 3–4 tbsp sauce, about 80 g torn mozzarella, then whatever else you like. Einkorn bases go soggy under heavy toppings.
8. Slide the pizza, still on its parchment, onto the steel. Bake for 7–10 minutes, until the rim is browned and the cheese is bubbling. Pull the parchment out after 4 minutes for a crisper bottom.