Sourdough Pizza is one of my absolute favorite things to make. This week’s Sourdough September post is all about Sourdough Pizza. There is something so very satisfying and comforting to make your own pizza, especially if you have made the dough yourself. Sourdough brings subtle tang and chewiness to make great pizza. If you love thin crisp pizza like they make here in the New York area, this is not, the pizza for you. I repeat this is not your new your kind of pizza. This is the kind of pizza where you want the flavor of the crust to come through. Sourdough pizza is hearty, with big air bubbles and very chewy yet crisp and delicious.
Sometimes simple is the best, I’ve made many a sourdough pizza in the past few years, including this amazing fig, walnut and feta pizza that is still one of my favorites. In fact, I am going to steal some of my directions from that post here. But I am doing a different topping here that I think really showcases the flavor of sourdough. There are loads of tomato sauce covered pizza out there, and I love a good tomato-based pizza. But I also think there is room for other toppings. Through a friend at work will tell me that it is sacrilege to call anything, but tomato covered pizza a real pizza I beg to differ.
The toppings I chose here are just a simple drizzle of good olive oil covered by dollops of whole milk ricotta, slices of black olive and then topped with sliced mushrooms and onions. The simple ingredients make a surprisingly tasty pizza. The chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside crust really shines.
For this pizza, I used a 75% hydration sourdough dough. I found that that is about the right amount to have a good stretch of the dough and get really big fun air bubbles to make a great rustic sourdough pizza. You can use my sourdough recipe as a guide using 1000 grams flour (800 bread/200 all-purpose) 730 grams water and 150 grams of active starter and 1 heaping tablespoon sea salt. I get perfect results every time. A few notes here: thinly sliced mushrooms and onions will cook better and won’t add a lot of moisture to the toppings as there is some moisture from the ricotta already. Don’t skimp on the Parmesan cheese it really makes the finished pizza shine.
Let me know in the comments below if you make sourdough pizza and what you have discovered as I’d love to hear from you.
- ¼ of my sourdough recipe or one small portion of pizza dough see note
- 2 tablespoons of good olive oil
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- ½ cup sliced black olives
- ¾ cup thinly sliced mushrooms
- ½ cup thinly sliced onion
- ½ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
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Heat your oven to 500° with a baking or pizza stone. Let the stone heat for at least 45 minutes or an hour if you have time. If you don’t have one, you can bake the pizza on a cookie sheet.
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Once the oven has heated, stretch pat or roll the pizza dough into a rough 12-14 inch circle. Be careful not to tear any holes in the dough. If you do, pinch together the dough to seal the hole.
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I find the I like to shape my pizzas onto a piece of parchment paper. You can use a peel dusted with cornmeal or just flour if you aren’t using the parchment paper. Or if you are using a baking sheet, right onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
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If you are using a stone for baking your pizza, turn the oven to broil for 10 minutes as you make the pizza.
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Dollop tablespoon-sized spoonfuls of the ricotta cheese evenly over the surface of the fig coated pizza dough.
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Sprinkle evenly over the pizza the black olives then the mushrooms followed by the onions. You want the onions on to nicely toast them.
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Make sure you turn the oven back to bake before you place the pizza into the oven.
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Using a peel, if using, or slide the pizza with the paper onto the hot stone.
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Bake for 12 to 15 minutes checking the pizza after 10 minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn.
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If the pizza isn’t browned enough, turn the oven to broil and broil for a few minutes to brown the top of the crust to a nice dark brown.
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You can check the bottom of the pizza too to see if it has crisped up by carefully lifting an edge to look.
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You can also rotate the pizza after 10 minutes if you think one side is browning faster than the other as happens in many ovens that have hot spots.
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Immediately sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the pizza.
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If making several of these pizzas remember to preheat your stone with the broiler for 10 minutes between pizzas.
My sourdough bread recipe makes 2 boules or 1 boule and 2 pizzas or 4 pizzas depending on how you divide the dough up. For this recipe, I used about 75% hydration which translates to 1000 grams flour (800 bread/200 all-purpose) 730 grams water and 150 grams of active starter and 1 heaping tablespoon sea salt.
