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Baking Tips
6 min read
Asparagus, Prosciutto & Taleggio Sourdough Pizza
A spring sourdough pizza with asparagus, prosciutto and melted taleggio on a crispy fermented base. Proper flavour, proper texture, dead easy to pull off.
A pizza with spinach leaves on top of itMarch is doing that thing where it cannot quite make up its mind, but the asparagus tips are starting to show up at the market and honestly that is all the permission I need to start cooking like it is spring. This sourdough pizza brings together the first decent asparagus of the season with salty prosciutto and the kind of melty, funky taleggio that makes you wonder why you ever bothered with mozzarella. The fermented base ties it all together in a way that a standard pizza dough just cannot touch.
Why This One Works
A lot of spring pizza recipes just bung some green veg on a base and call it seasonal. This one is a bit more considered than that. The asparagus is blanched briefly before going on, so it stays tender and slightly sweet rather than turning stringy in the oven. The taleggio melts into the gaps left by the prosciutto, which crisps up at the edges. And the sourdough base, because it has had a proper ferment, has enough flavour to hold its own against all of that rather than just acting as a vehicle.
It is also genuinely quick to put together once your dough is ready, which makes it a solid Friday night option when you want something a bit special without spending the whole evening in the kitchen.
The Ingredients
For the Sourdough Pizza Dough
- 300g (about 2 cups) strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 90g active sourdough starter (100% hydration, fed 4 to 6 hours before use)
- 180g (¾ cup) warm water
- 7g (1¼ tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) olive oil
For the Toppings (per pizza)
- 6 to 8 asparagus spears, woody ends snapped off
- 80g taleggio, rind removed, torn into rough pieces
- 3 to 4 slices of prosciutto di Parma
- 2 tbsp crème fraîche (as the base, instead of tomato)
- 1 small clove garlic, finely grated
- A few gratings of lemon zest
- Olive oil for drizzling
- Freshly ground black pepper
- A small handful of rocket, to finish
How to Make It
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour, starter, water and olive oil in a large bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. Leave it to rest for 30 minutes (this is your autolyse). After the rest, add the salt and squeeze it through the dough with your fingers until it is fully incorporated. The dough will feel smooth and a bit tacky.
- Build some strength. Over the next hour, perform three to four sets of stretch and folds, roughly 20 to 30 minutes apart. Each set is four folds, rotating the bowl a quarter turn each time. After the last set, the dough should feel noticeably more elastic and hold its shape when you pull it.
- Bulk ferment. Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature (ideally around 22 to 24°C) for a further 2 to 3 hours, until the dough has grown by around 50 to 60 per cent and feels airy when you gently press it. March kitchens can run cool, so give it longer if needed rather than rushing it.
- Divide and shape. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal pieces. Shape each one into a tight ball, cover with a damp cloth and rest for 20 minutes. This short bench rest lets the gluten relax so the dough stretches without fighting you.
- Prep the asparagus. While the dough rests, blanch the asparagus in well-salted boiling water for 90 seconds, then transfer straight into cold water. Pat dry and cut the spears in half lengthways if they are on the thicker side.
- Preheat your oven hard. Set your oven to its absolute maximum temperature (240 to 250°C if it will go that high) and put a heavy baking tray or pizza stone on the top shelf. Give it at least 30 minutes to get properly screaming hot. This is the single biggest factor in getting a good base.
- Stretch and top. On a floured surface, stretch each dough ball out to roughly 28 to 30 centimetres. You can use a rolling pin but hands give you a better, more uneven crust with nicer bubbles. Mix the crème fraîche with the grated garlic and spread a thin layer over the base, leaving a centimetre or so border. Scatter the taleggio pieces, lay on the asparagus, then loosely drape the prosciutto over the top. A few grinds of pepper and a small drizzle of olive oil to finish.
- Bake. Slide the pizza onto the hot tray (a peel or a flat baking sheet with no lip makes this much easier). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the crust is deeply golden at the edges and the taleggio has melted and caught a little colour in places.
- Finish and serve. Pull it out and immediately scatter a small handful of rocket over the top. The heat wilts it just enough. Finish with the lemon zest and eat it straight away. This is not a pizza that waits patiently.
Baker's Tips
Baker's Tips
- Starter timing is everything here. You want your starter at or just past peak activity when you mix the dough. That slightly domed, bubbly, tangy-smelling starter is what gives this base its flavour and lift. If yours has been sitting in the fridge, feed it the evening before and again on the morning you want to bake.
- Do not skip the hot tray. A cold tray going into the oven is the most common reason home pizza bases come out pale and a bit soft. That initial burst of direct heat from below is what gives you those dark, blistered spots on the base. A cast iron pan or a thick steel tray holds heat the best.
- Adjust your hydration by feel, not just formula. Different flour brands absorb water differently, and March humidity is a factor too. If you find yourself tweaking this recipe over a few bakes, it is worth tracking the changes somewhere useful. DoughRise Pro lets you save unlimited formulas and keeps your full bake history, so you can actually learn from each session rather than starting from scratch every time.
A Few Notes on the Topping Choices
Taleggio can be hard to find in some supermarkets but any Italian deli or a decent cheesemonger will have it. If you cannot get hold of it, a young fontina or even a good quality brie will do a similar job. The key is a soft cheese that melts properly and brings some richness to balance the salty prosciutto.
The crème fraîche base is something I have been using instead of tomato sauce on white pizzas for a while now. It is more stable in a very hot oven than you might expect, and the slight acidity works brilliantly with the asparagus and lemon. A really thin layer is all you need.
Make It Your Own
Once you have got the base dough dialled in, this becomes a template you can riff on through the rest of spring. Swap the prosciutto for pancetta and the taleggio for a strong cheddar. Add some caramelised leeks. Try a handful of frozen peas thrown on in the last two minutes of baking. The sourdough base is robust enough to handle most things you throw at it.
There is something properly satisfying about pulling a pizza like this out of the oven on a spring evening, especially when the base has that sourdough tang and the asparagus still has a bit of bite to it. Get your starter fed, get that oven hot, and enjoy the fact that the good seasonal stuff is finally back.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Alimentos Fotogénicos on Unsplash