Mushroom, Spinach and Ham Pizza

I have a confession – I cannot make bread. Any I make is truly rubbish. But I have a trick to making pizza dough – I leave make it the night before and leave it to prove in the fridge for the best part of 24 hours. It requires a bit of forethought but is fairly simple and easy. It would probably work for bread but, oddly, I’m not so organised on that front.

I usually have home-made tomato sauce in the freeze, but shop bought or even tomato puree would do the job. Obviously ham is not vegetarian but really you could top the pizza with anything you fancy.

Dough
300g flour
200ml water – hand hot
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp quick yeast
2tbps olive oil

Topping
3 tbsp tomato sauce
6 mushrooms, sliced
Knob butter
1 handful spinach
2 slices Serrano ham (optional)
1 ball mozzarella

To make the dough – mix the yeast, sugar and water in a jug and leave for a couple of minutes. Put the flour and salt in a bowl and pour in the water. Scrap it all together into a rough dough, add the olive oil and knead for about 10 minutes. Put it into an oiled bowl, covered with cling film and stick in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make the pizza, preheat your oven to about 230C.

Slice the mushrooms and fry in a little butter until just soft. Set to one side and then wilt the spinach in the same pan (for no reason than to reduce washing up).

Dust a work surface with plenty of flour put the dough in the middle and top with a layer of cling film. Roll out as thin as you can and as best you can (it has a tendency to shrink back). Place (carefully) on a large baking tray m- I always struggle and stretch the dough at this point to if you have any clever ways to do it please let me know. Smear with tomato sauce right up to the edges, then top with the spinach, mushrooms and Serrano ham. Finally finish by tearing the mozzarella over the top.

Place in the hot over for about 20 minutes, until golden.

Serves two.