This recipe for no-knead pizza with fennel, Italian sausage and burrata is a bit of a leap of faith, but once you get used to the dough, it’s a great method to have up your sleeve.
Ingredients
¼ tsp active dried yeast
½ tsp golden caster sugar
500g plain flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp salt
for the tray semolina
TOPPING
1 clove garlic, sliced
olive oil
400g tin tinned cherry tomatoes
6 spicy Italian sausages
½ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
1 large ball burrata
to finish basil leaves
Method
- Mix the yeast with 400ml warm water and the sugar, stir and leave for 5 minutes. Put the flour and salt in a bowl. Gradually mix in the liquid and form a claggy, rough dough (there’s no need to knead). Cover with clingfilm and leave in a coolish spot in the kitchen overnight (but not in the fridge).
- To make the pizza sauce, sizzle the garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil then tip in the tomatoes. Simmer for 12-15 minutes until the sauce is thick, then leave to cool.
- The next day, tip the dough out on to a floured surface. It will be very sticky and bubbly. Bring together in a rough lump by adding a little extra flour – remembering the less flour you add, the puffier the dough will be. Divide into 2 and drop onto 2 baking trays which have been lightly dusted with semolina. Push and stretch into 2 rough pizza shapes with your floured hands (you won’t be able to roll it).
- Skin the sausages then mix the meat with the fennel seeds. Roll into little meatballs (about 20).
- Heat the oven to 240C/fan 220C/gas 9. Spread a thin layer of sauce over each pizza – not too much otherwise it’ll be soggy (you can freeze the rest to use another time). Drop the meatballs all over, spaced evenly. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until puffed and golden. To finish, tear over the burrata and scatter with fresh basil leaves and seasoning to serve.
