Mushroom and Pecorino Pizza

Pizza baked in the oven with a well prepared and cared for dough has a superb taste far superior to any supermarket ready pizza base. Assembled and baked in frying pan to ensure a crispy bottom using utensils every owns. Then topped with buttery mushrooms, a thick reduced tomato sauce and two types of cheeses; one packing salty flavour and a creamy cheese to give you those cheesy strands with each slice. Simple flavours that keep you coming back for more.

Ingredients
Enough to make 1 pizza.
1 cup of plain Flour
1 tsp quick-acting dried Yeast
100 ml warm Water
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
250g Chestnut Mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 tbsp Butter
50g Pecorino, shaved
50g Mozzarella, torn
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
fresh Parsley to garnish
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Oil
Tomato Passata

Recipe
Start by making the pizza dough. In a bowl, sieve the flour, yeast and salt and mix well. Then make a well in the centre to add your olive oil and half of the water. Start whisking the water and oil with a fork and gradually include the flour from the edges until it is all combined, use your hands to pull all the flour from the edges. If it's too dry, add some more water but you don't want it too sticky. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the dough bounces back when you poke it and is smooth. Leave it to rest in a floured bowl until it doubles in size.

While you're waiting, pre-heat oven to 220 degrees and heat a frying pan. Add some cooking oil to the pan and half the butter. Fry the mushrooms in batches so they get nicely coloured, when you're done, add all the mushrooms to the pan, with the remaining butter and the garlic clove. This will ensure the mushrooms slightly pick up the flavour of the garlic which works really well with the pecornio.

If your tomato passata is too watery, reduce it down in a saucepan with a touch of seasoning until it becomes a thick heady tomato paste. Now you're ready to construct your pizza. Turn your dough out on a floured surface and knead gently to remove the air. Roll into a ball and then flatten with the palm of your hand. Place the disk onto a large round frying pan and with your fingers, gently push the dough to the outer edges of the pan, the dough should be thick enough to avoid making holes. But if you do make holes, pinch the dough back together again.

Spoon on some passata to the edges, then add the torn mozzarella, then the mushrooms and shaved pecornio and finally garnish with half the parsley. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown at the edges. Slide out onto a wooden board and tuck in.