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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Pizza Bianca with Courgette, Burrata & Lemon Oil
A summer sourdough pizza bianca topped with ribboned courgette, torn burrata and lemon oil. Crisp, blistered base with real depth of flavour.
Photo by Kajetan Sumila on UnsplashThe kind of pizza you make in June when the courgettes are cheap at the market and you want something that feels light but still properly satisfying. No tomato sauce, no heavy toppings , just a sourdough pizza bianca with a base that crackles when you pick up a slice, striped with thin ribbons of courgette that half-roast in the oven heat, and great big torn pieces of burrata melting into the middle. A drizzle of lemon oil at the end and that is honestly it.
Pizza bianca is one of those things that sounds simple but lives or dies on the base. The fermentation does most of the work here , a good overnight cold proof gives you that flavour and those irregular bubbles that blister and char at the edges. If your starter is active and your dough gets enough time, you barely need to do anything else. This is the kind of bake I end up doing on a Friday evening, music on low, nothing complicated, and it always lands well.
Dough
- 400g strong white bread flour (or 00 flour)
- 80g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- 260g water, room temperature
- 9g (1½ tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
Base
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme
- Flaky sea salt
Toppings
- 2 medium courgettes
- 2 balls of burrata (125g each)
- Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 3 tbsp good olive oil (for the lemon oil)
- Small handful of fresh basil leaves
- Black pepper, to finish
Baker's Tips
- Use a mandoline or a speed peeler to get your courgette ribbons thin and even. Thick slices will steam rather than roast, and you want them to catch a little colour at the edges.
- Get your baking stone or steel in the oven at least 45 minutes before you bake. The base needs immediate, intense heat from below , that is what gives you the blistered undercarriage rather than a pale, soft bottom.
- If you are scaling up or adjusting flour types, baker's percentages make it much easier to keep everything in proportion. DoughRise Pro is worth having here , you can save your adjusted formula and pull it back up next time without rebuilding it from scratch.
METHOD
- Mix the dough. In a large bowl, combine the flour and water and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes (this is your autolyse , it does the initial gluten work for you without any effort). After resting, add the starter, salt and olive oil. Mix well by hand, using a pinching and folding motion, until everything is incorporated and the dough feels smooth and slightly tacky, around 3 to 4 minutes.
- Bulk ferment with folds. Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature (ideally around 24°C) for 4 to 5 hours. In the first 2 hours, perform a set of stretch and folds every 30 minutes , 4 sets in total. Each set is 4 folds, rotating the bowl a quarter turn between each one. After the folds are done, leave the dough undisturbed for the remainder of the bulk. You are looking for it to have grown noticeably, feel airy when you handle it, and have some bubbles visible through the bowl. Keep an eye on bulk fermentation time if your kitchen runs warm , summer kitchens can push things along faster than you expect.
- Divide and cold proof. Turn the dough gently onto a lightly floured surface and divide into two equal pieces (around 375g each). Shape each piece into a rough ball by pulling the edges underneath and creating surface tension. Place each ball into a lightly oiled container or onto a floured tray, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight , anywhere from 8 to 14 hours works well.
- Bring the dough back to room temperature. Take the dough balls out of the fridge about 1.5 to 2 hours before you want to bake. Leave them covered on the counter. They need to relax fully , cold, tight dough will spring back when you try to stretch it and fight you the whole way.
- Heat the oven and prep your toppings. Place your baking stone or steel on the top shelf and heat your oven to its absolute maximum (most home ovens will reach 250 to 280°C). This needs at least 45 minutes. While it heats, use a mandoline or speed peeler to slice the courgettes into thin ribbons lengthways. Mix the olive oil, garlic and thyme together for the base. In a small jar, combine the lemon juice, zest and olive oil for the lemon oil. Set everything out ready.
- Stretch and top the first pizza. Flour your work surface generously. Take one dough ball and press it flat with your fingertips, working from the centre outwards and leaving a thicker rim. Pick it up and let gravity help , drape it over your knuckles and rotate gently, letting it stretch under its own weight. Aim for roughly a 28 to 30 centimetre round, though an irregular shape is completely fine. Transfer to a well-floured pizza peel or the back of a flat baking tray. Brush generously with the garlic thyme oil, season with flaky salt, then lay the courgette ribbons over the top in loose, overlapping layers.
- Bake. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the crust is deeply golden at the edges, the base is charred in patches and the courgette is slightly caramelised. Every oven is different so check it at 8 minutes. While it bakes, stretch and top the second pizza.
- Finish and serve. Pull the pizza out and immediately tear one ball of burrata over it in large pieces. The residual heat will soften it slightly without fully melting it , you want it cool and creamy against the hot base. Drizzle over a generous amount of the lemon oil, scatter fresh basil leaves and finish with a few good cracks of black pepper. Eat immediately, straight from the board.
Why this works
The cold proof slows fermentation right down, which gives the dough more time to develop acetic acid alongside lactic acid. That longer, cooler fermentation is what gives sourdough pizza its slightly complex, tangy edge that you just do not get from a same-day bake. The cold also firms the dough up, making it much easier to stretch without tearing.
INTO THE OVEN
Want to dial in this recipe for a bigger batch or a different flour? Use the free DoughRise Baker's Percentage Calculator to scale everything precisely without the mental arithmetic.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash