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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Recipe
7 min read
Sourdough Pizza Bianca with Whipped Nduja Butter, Grilled Corn & Scamorza
A summer sourdough pizza bianca topped with whipped nduja butter, charred corn and smoky scamorza. Real flavour, proper fermentation, easy method.
Photo by Or Hakim on UnsplashThe smell of a pizza base hitting a screaming hot stone in midsummer is one of those sensory moments that just stops you mid-conversation. You get that sudden bloom of char and toasted flour, and everyone in the room turns their head at once.
This one has been in the rotation since late May and honestly it keeps getting ordered on request. A sourdough pizza bianca (no tomato, for the uninitiated) topped with whipped nduja butter that melts into the dough as it bakes, sweet charred corn cut straight off the cob, and scamorza sliced thick enough to blister properly in the oven. It sounds a bit mad on paper but the combination is genuinely excellent: smoky, rich, a little spicy from the nduja, with the natural sweetness of summer corn cutting right through it. The fermented base brings an acidity that balances everything. This is the kind of pizza that makes people ask you for the recipe mid-slice, cheese still trailing off the board.
Dough
- 300g strong white bread flour
- 195g water, lukewarm (around 28°C)
- 75g active sourdough starter (at or just past peak)
- 6g (1 tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
Whipped Nduja Butter
- 60g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 40g nduja (Calabrian spreadable sausage)
- 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
- Pinch of flaky sea salt
Toppings
- 2 ears of corn on the cob (or 200g loose corn kernels)
- 200g scamorza affumicata (smoked scamorza), sliced 5mm thick
- A small handful of fresh basil leaves
- Extra virgin olive oil, to finish
- Freshly cracked black pepper
Baker's Tips
- This dough sits at around 65% hydration which keeps it manageable for stretching by hand without needing a ton of flour on the bench. If your kitchen is warm (over 24°C is typical in London right now), watch it closely in bulk. It will move faster than you expect.
- Scamorza is worth tracking down , most Italian delis will stock it and the smoked version in particular brings a depth that regular mozzarella just cannot replicate here. That said, low-moisture mozzarella torn into chunks is a workable substitute if you are in a pinch.
- If you are scaling this up for a group, the baker's percentages are simple enough to multiply. If you are running a supper club or a small baking operation and need to cost out batches properly, the DoughRise Bakery plan has a dedicated bakery cost reporting tool and commercial batch scaling built in, which makes that side of things much less painful.
METHOD
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour and water in a large bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. Leave it to rest for 30 minutes (this is a loose autolyse). After resting, add the active sourdough starter and olive oil. Squeeze and fold the mixture through your fingers until everything is incorporated. Add the salt last, dissolving it in a splash of water first if you like, then work it through the dough for another minute or two.
- Bulk fermentation. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or shower cap and leave to ferment at room temperature. In a warm summer kitchen this will typically take 5 to 7 hours. Aim for roughly 70 to 75% volume increase and a dough that is noticeably puffier, a little domed on top, and jiggles when you shake the bowl. Perform 3 sets of stretch and folds in the first 90 minutes (every 30 minutes), then leave it alone.
- Divide and ball. Lightly oil your work surface. Turn the dough out gently, trying to keep some of the gas in it. Divide it into two equal pieces (roughly 290g each). Shape each one into a tight ball by folding the edges underneath and rotating it against the surface to build tension. Place the balls into lightly oiled containers or on a lightly floured tray, spaced well apart.
- Cold proof. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours and up to 48 hours. The cold slow-down deepens the flavour and makes the dough easier to stretch. When you are ready to bake, take the dough balls out and leave them at room temperature for at least 1 hour before stretching. Cold dough fights you.
Why this works
Resting the dough balls at room temperature before stretching lets the gluten relax. Cold gluten is tight and elastic, which means the dough springs back every time you try to open it out. Giving it an hour off the fridge means you can coax it to full size without it fighting you. The difference is immediately obvious the first time you try it properly.
- Make the nduja butter. Beat the softened butter until smooth, then work in the nduja and grated garlic with a fork until evenly combined. It should be spreadable, a little pink-orange, and smell absolutely brilliant. Season with a pinch of flaky salt. This can be made the day before and kept in the fridge.
- Char the corn. If using cobs, grill them directly over a gas flame or under a very hot grill, turning until charred in patches all over. Leave to cool slightly, then stand the cob upright and slice the kernels off close to the cob. A griddle pan works well for this too. The char is not optional.
INTO THE OVEN
- Preheat hard. Place your baking stone or a heavy upturned baking tray in the oven and crank it to its highest setting (usually 250°C to 280°C fan). Leave it for at least 45 minutes. This is non-negotiable. A cold stone is the number one reason home pizza turns out pale and floppy instead of blistered and crisp.
- Stretch the dough. Dust your work surface lightly with semolina or plain flour. Take one dough ball and press it out gently from the centre with your fingertips, working outward and leaving the edge slightly thicker. Once it is about 15cm across, pick it up and use the backs of your hands (not fingertips) to stretch it to roughly 28 to 30cm. Let gravity do the work. It does not need to be perfectly round.
- Top and launch. Lay the stretched base onto a floured pizza peel or a sheet of baking parchment. Spread a generous tablespoon of the nduja butter across the base, leaving about 2cm of rim. Scatter over the charred corn kernels, then lay the scamorza slices evenly across. Slide it onto the hot stone and bake for 7 to 9 minutes until the crust is deeply coloured and blistered, the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown in spots, and the rim is puffed and charred at the edges.
- Finish and serve. Pull it out, tear the basil over the top immediately so it wilts slightly from the heat, crack over some black pepper, and hit it with a thin drizzle of your best olive oil. Eat it straight away. Repeat with the second ball.
Want to dial in this recipe for a bigger batch? Use the free DoughRise Baker's Percentages Calculator to scale the dough to any size without losing the ratios.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store