Last Updated on December 28, 2020
An Easy Sourdough Pizza Recipe with Sourdough.
Having recently joined the growing number of people making their own sourdough bread, I’ve been busily feeding and discarding my starter for the last week or so. And, I’ve been just a little shocked. All that gloop going in the bin – it seemed wasteful to me. So, I’ve searched the internet for a solution and found a wealth of ideas to use up the sourdough discard.
Ever wondered how that posh sourdough pizza base comes from? Well, I have an answer – it is easily made from the discard starter perked up with a little extra flour and olive oil. I’m sure commercial pizza-makers don’t use the leftover starter from bread-making. But, for a small household like mine, it’s a great solution and one which is closer to the origin of pizza than you might imagine.
Pizza as we know it today is an evolution of early bread making, from before the days of commercial yeasts. Wiki talks about a number of early precursors – round cakes like pita bread that were topped with vegetables and appeared in the Aeneid (ca 19 BC), a flatbread called Plakous that was flavoured with herbs, onion, cheese and garlic and enjoyed by the Ancient Greeks…or even Persian soldiers baking flatbread on their battle shields in the 6th century BC. Of course, there were no tomatoes at that time, so it wasn’t that much like the type of pizza we eat today. Even in 16th Century Naples, Pizza was really an affordable streetfood. By the mid 17th century, pizzas were topped with oil and tomato – and had become a delicacy. The Pizza Margherita, garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil to represent the national colours of Italy was created by a Neopolitan pizza maker in honour of Margherita of Savoy, the Queen Consort of Italy at the time.
In fact, there are very few rules about what you need to top a pizza. Even tomatoes are not necessary – Pizza Bianca, for instance, is NEVER made with tomatoes and usually includes a mix of mozzarella or other cheeses together with ham, vegetables and olive oil. I still use pizza as a way to use up scraps of vegetables, meat and cheese in the fridge and I have to confess I’m rather taken by the idea that I can use scraps of sourdough starter too.
Here’s another set of toppings – you add a handful of rocket or arugula right at the end while the pizza is still piping hot so that it just wilts a little but still has texture.
Here’s how to make your own rustic style pizza. This one is the right size for four moderate eaters or for two really hungry people. And, it’s a great way to make use of your sourdough discard. If for some reason you are not making sourdough bread, then simply substitute 7g of fast-acting yeast and increase the quantity of flour to 400g.
Sourdough Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
Pizza Base
- 150 g sourdough discard
- 250 g white flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 dessertspoon olive oil
- 1 tsp honey or caster sugar
- 125 ml warm water
Pizza Topping
- 1/2 red onion finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp tomato passata
- 1 tomato
- 1 handful fresh basil
- 2 slices parma ham or similar
- 12 olives stoned and sliced
- 1 ball mozzarella
- 2 tsp olive oil
- vegetables of your choice - mushrooms, peppers, courgette etc
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Pizza Base
- Put the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix
- Make a well in the middle and add the sourdough starter, oil and honey (if using)
- Use a fork to pull in the flour, then add warm water till you can form the mixture into a dough
- Knead on a floured board for 10-15 minutes or using the dough hook of your mixer for 8-10 minutes
- Cover and leave to rest for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size. This may take up to 4 hours. It's safe to leave the dough out for up to eight hours until you are ready to bake.
- When you are ready to bake your pizza preheat the oven to around 250c
Pizza
- Take the dough and roll out or stretch into one or two rounds on a sheet of silicone baking paper
- Smear the top of the dough with passata
- Sprinkle over the minced garlic
- Layer on the remaining vegetables leaving the sliced fresh tomato till the end.
- Top with shredded ham and mozzarella and season with salt and pepper
- Slide the baking paper onto your pizza stone or steel or onto a large baking sheet
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melting and the edge of the pizza is golden brown
Nutrition
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A great way to use up that left over sourdough discard
This creates an amazing pizza crust. We made 2 smaller pizzas for the two of us and ended up with one leftover for a dinner early next week. I’ve been making pizza directly on the BBQ for a while now. No stone or pan required, just place the dough on a hot grill and rotate it a quarter turn every 30 seconds or so. Keep an eye on it so you don’t burn it but the end result is a bit of char on the crust just like a pizzeria.
The secret is to grill the first side with no toppings. Once the first side is done, flip it on the grill for just a couple of seconds, bring it back into the kitchen and top the grilled side of the dough. Once you’ve added your toppings put it back on the grill and keep an eye on the bottom, you don’t want to burn it. We usually pop it under the broiler to finish the cheese.
We topped ours using different ingredients but I imagine the topping sin this recipe would be great.
Fantastic pizza recipe, previously I had made pizzas with bakers yeast that ended up thick and bread, while these ended up thin and crispy much more like a traditional Italian pizza.
I can see this becoming a regular thing on our household menu.
Thank you – I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I will try on the BBQ once the weather gets a bit better – sounds amazing!
Been having great results with this recipe!
I was throwing out my sourdough discard every day because living in a single-person household, none of the sourdough discard recipes on the internet (muffins, crackers, waffles, BREAD) were very practical for me to make on a daily basis. Now I make this sourdough discard pizza dough, divide into two balls of dough, refrigerate for 24 hours after kneading, and then either use or freeze. I’ve also got lots of pizza dough to give out to friends who love it!
As I discard ~100g of starter per day, I’ve been scaling the recipe to 2/3 with good results. The only feedback I’d mention is that the “pinch” of salt in the ingredients list is rather vague and I did need more than just one or two turns from my sea salt grinder.
I was taught that a ‘pinch’ was definitely more than one or two turns of a seasalt grinder. But fair point, it would be just as easy to put half a teaspoon…! will edit later
I actually used 9 gms of salt and the pizza dough turned out amazing!
Thanks! I think the quantity of salt you use will be based partly on personal taste. Next time I try myself I’ll actually measure (and may well try a bit more)
How old is your discard? I only feed my starter once a week and then collect the discard. Therefore, sometimes my discard has 1-3 weeks old before I use it in recipes. I have made great focaccia with 3 week old discard and assume can do your pizza too? Thank you, Carmen
I do much the same and make focaccia too. Yes, my discard can be three weeks old or so – every so often I do tip it out and start again (probably once a month but I haven’t got it on a calendar) if for some reason I haven’t used enough
Hello I feed my starter every day. Reading these messages I feel I am doing something wrong. Today I made some dough with the discarded starter for a pizza which I shall bake tomorrow.
I don’t feed my starter every day because I only bake once a week and I keep it in the fridge. You need to decide what works for you!
Would you use plain or bread flour for this? The recipe just says white.
Ideally bread flour, but plain flour will work. It may just be a bit chewier!
What is the amount of a dessert spoon?
A dessert spoon is 10 grams or two teaspoons
OMG… disaster. The silicone baking paper stuck onto the pizza base.
We couldn’t even peel off the paper!
Why did this not happen to anyone else??
Would love to hear more comments
Hi Su
Silicone baking paper never sticks once the pizza is cooked. There are a few possibilities. If your oven doesn’t cook at a high enough temperature, then you will always struggle with pizza. It should be pre-heated – and the temperature I have provided is Centigrade, not Fahrenheit which I know is the common oven temperature measure in the USA (I am from the UK). You DO need silicone paper, not greaseproof paper. I personally have never tried with greaseproof paper, but I believe if you needed to substitute it would be possible, but you’d have to oil the paper lightly first. I have even cooked this on a pizza-steel with no paper at all – so I can attest that the dough doesn’t stick if made properly. If you used regular flour rather than bread flour that might also cause a problem. Different flours need different quantities of water so if you made a dough that was too wet in the first place because you were using a different flour that would also cause a problem. I still wouldn’t expect it to stick if you cooked the pizza for long enough. You can clearly see from the photos how the crust should look. Was your pizza like that?
Thank you for this recipe, I have been making sourdough bread for over 6 months now, I feed my starter once a week and shave been throwing the discard out. Yesterday, I wanted to make pizza dough so researched your recipe. Best tasting pizza dough EVER! I’m so excited to be adding this to my recipe repertoire! I made my version of a Margherita, although I baked the basil and it did turn dark, but was still tasty! I wish I could post a picture of it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Easy to follow and make and it tasted great. Thank you so much!
I love making this – and I’m glad you approve!
Once the dough is made, is it ok to freeze it and use at a later time?
Theoretically yes, but I haven’t tried (I never have any freezer space!)
Great recipe! Easy to make and delicious. Thank you for a great way to use up sourdough discard.