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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Baking Tips
5 min read
Spinach, Lemon & Ricotta Sourdough Flatbread Pizza
A bright spring sourdough flatbread pizza with wilted spinach, lemon-spiked ricotta and toasted pine nuts. Easy recipe with a same-day dough option.
a pizza with cheese and toppingsSpring has a way of making you want lighter food, brighter flavours, something that actually feels like the season rather than the last few months of heavy, warming bakes. This sourdough flatbread pizza is exactly that. A thin, slightly charred base topped with whipped lemon ricotta, wilted garlicky spinach and a scatter of toasted pine nuts , it comes together quickly, tastes genuinely special, and is the kind of thing you can have on the table on a Friday evening without any stress.
Why Flatbread Dough Works So Well Here
The dough for this is a slightly lower-hydration sourdough flatbread, sitting around 68%. That makes it easy to handle and stretch thin without it tearing or fighting back. Because it is a flatbread rather than a fully proved boule, you are not waiting overnight , a few hours of bulk fermentation at room temperature gives you enough activity and flavour without needing to plan your entire day around it.
The key thing with any sourdough pizza or flatbread dough is that your starter needs to be genuinely active at the point you mix. Not just alive, but peaked and bubbly. If yours has been sitting in the fridge for a week, give it a feed the morning you plan to bake and wait until it is properly domed before you use it.
Ingredients
Flatbread Dough
- 300g strong white bread flour
- 204g water (around 20°C), roughly 200ml
- 60g active sourdough starter
- 7g fine sea salt
- 15g olive oil (about 1 tablespoon)
Lemon Ricotta
- 250g full-fat ricotta
- Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely grated
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Topping
- 180g fresh spinach (baby spinach works great)
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 30g pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry pan
- Flaky sea salt and a pinch of chilli flakes to finish
- Optional: a small handful of fresh basil leaves
Method
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour and water in a large bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave for 30 minutes. This short rest hydrates the flour and gives you a head start on gluten development before you bring in the starter and salt.
- Add starter and salt. Add the active sourdough starter, fine sea salt and olive oil to the dough. Squeeze and fold everything together until fully incorporated , it will feel a bit rough at first but will come together within a couple of minutes. Cover the bowl.
- Bulk ferment. Leave the dough at room temperature for around 3 to 4 hours. In early April, room temperature in most UK homes sits somewhere around 19 to 21°C, so 3.5 hours is a reasonable starting point. During the first two hours, do three sets of stretch and folds about 30 minutes apart. The dough should feel noticeably more extensible and slightly puffy by the end.
- Divide and rest. Once bulk is done, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into two equal pieces. Round each one into a smooth ball with a bit of surface tension, then cover with a damp cloth and rest for 20 minutes. This relaxes the gluten so the dough stretches properly.
- Preheat your oven. Set it to its maximum temperature, ideally 250°C (fan) or 270°C (conventional) with a heavy baking tray or pizza steel inside. Give it a full 45 minutes to properly heat through.
- Prepare the spinach topping. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and let it soften for a minute without colouring. Add the spinach in batches and wilt it down, stirring as you go. Season well, then tip into a sieve and press out as much water as you can. This step matters , wet spinach will steam your base rather than letting it crisp up.
- Make the lemon ricotta. Whip the ricotta in a bowl with the lemon zest, lemon juice, grated garlic, salt and pepper. Taste it , it should be bright and creamy. Set aside.
- Shape and top. On a sheet of baking parchment, use your fingertips and knuckles to stretch one dough ball into a rough oval or circle, around 25 to 30 centimetres across. Spread half the lemon ricotta over it, leaving a 2cm border. Scatter half the wilted spinach over the top, then half the pine nuts.
- Bake. Slide the flatbread (still on the parchment) onto the hot tray or steel and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are puffed and charred in places and the base feels crisp when you lift a corner. Repeat with the second flatbread.
- Finish and serve. Out of the oven, add a drizzle of your best olive oil, a pinch of chilli flakes and some flaky sea salt. Fresh basil on top is worth it if you have it.
Baker's Tips
- Squeeze the spinach properly. I know I already mentioned it, but it really is the thing most people skip. Press it hard in a sieve, even squeeze it in your hands if needed. Excess moisture is the enemy of a crispy flatbread base.
- Stretch cold dough with patience. If your dough snaps back aggressively when you try to stretch it, cover it and leave it for another five minutes. Fighting it will tear it. The gluten just needs to relax , it is not the dough being difficult, it is physics.
- If your timings are off, ask for help. Spring temperatures vary wildly , a warm kitchen one week, a cold draught the next. If you are finding your bulk fermentation is hard to call, the DoughRise Coach is genuinely useful here: unlimited AI coaching messages, personalised bake plans and recipe troubleshooting so you are not just guessing based on someone else's kitchen conditions.
A Good Spring Bake
There is something satisfying about a recipe that does not ask much of you but gives a lot back. This flatbread is the kind of bake you can start at lunchtime and have ready well before anyone gets hungry , no long overnight retard, no complicated shaping, just good dough, bright toppings and a properly hot oven doing its job. Get it on the table with a cold glass of something and enjoy the fact that it is finally starting to feel like spring.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Sanchit Singh on Unsplash