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Fennel and salami pizzette
Makes 40 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- For the dough
- 400g ‘00’ Italian flour or strong white bread flour
- 100g fine semolina
- 1tsp sea salt
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 7g packet of fast-action yeast
- 1tsp honey
For the topping
- 2 small bulbs of fennel, finely sliced (preferably with a mandolin so they are extra thin)
- ½ red onion, finely sliced
- 50g grated parmesan zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 4tbsp freshly chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2tsp Dijon mustard
- 1tsp caster sugar
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- 50ml olive oil mixed with 1 heaped tbsp dried oregano
- 15–20 slices of spicy salami, torn
Method
Sift both the flours into a large bowl and crumble in the salt. You can stick to using just 500g of plain flour here, but the semolina oomphs up crispiness in your base. In a jug, mix together 300ml warm water, olive oil, yeast and honey and then set aside for 15 minutes – this will give the yeast a chance to really kick into action.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the liquid. Using the end of a spoon, push the flour into the liquid, working it in. When it is all in, dust your hands with flour and tip the mixture out onto a work surface. Knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic. It should take about 8 minutes to reach this point, so bear with it.
Place the dough in a floured bowl, sprinkle some more flour over the top of it, and then cover it with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place to rise for an hour.
To make the fennel topping, put the fennel, onion, grated parmesan, lemon zest and parsley into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the garlic, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper to taste, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil and then pour over the fennel. Mix well.
When the dough is almost risen, preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7 and heat a couple of large baking trays. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it again, knocking all the air out of it.
Divide it into 40 parts and start to roll into rough ovals till each part is about 7-8cm across. Dust the hot trays with semolina and place the dough on them. Brush with herb olive oil and lay over the salami.
Bake for 9 minutes, then to serve, top with the fennel salad.
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