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Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Pizza with Roasted Chestnuts, Gorgonzola & Crispy Pancetta: The Autumn Bake That Feels Like a Fireside Night In
A rich, autumnal sourdough pizza topped with roasted chestnuts, melted gorgonzola and crispy pancetta. Real flavours, proper dough, and a relaxed weekend method.
Photo by veda kiran on UnsplashThe smell of roasting chestnuts in October is one of those things that stops you mid-thought. It drifts out of market stalls in Borough or Spitalfields and hits you before you even register it, warm and slightly smoky and completely at odds with the grey drizzle outside. This pizza takes that exact feeling and turns it into a proper Friday night bake: a sourdough base topped with creamy, funky gorgonzola, sweet roasted chestnuts, and pancetta that crisps up in the oven and shatters when you bite through it.
It sounds like a lot, but the flavour logic is solid. The gorgonzola melts into the dough and goes nutty at the edges. The chestnuts add a gentle sweetness that balances the salt of the pancetta and the sharpness of the cheese. A drizzle of honey at the end ties it all together. If you have ever made a fig and walnut pizza and thought 'I want that energy but more autumnal,' this is the one. The dough sits at a comfortable 68% hydration, which is easy to handle and gives you a base with a bit of chew and good blistering without turning into a wrestling match on the worktop.
Dough
- 340g strong white bread flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 230g water, room temperature
- 80g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- 8g (1.5 tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
Base
- 30g crème fraîche (a thin layer per pizza)
- A pinch of black pepper
- A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Toppings
- 120g cooked and peeled chestnuts (vacuum-packed is fine, roughly broken)
- 150g gorgonzola dolce, torn into small pieces
- 80g thinly sliced pancetta or pancetta cubetti
- Fresh thyme, a few sprigs
- 20g runny honey, to finish
- A small handful of rocket, to serve
Baker's Tips
- Vacuum-packed chestnuts from most supermarkets work perfectly here. You want them soft and slightly crumbly, not hard roasted ones that will dry out further in the oven. Break them by hand into irregular pieces so you get different textures across the base.
- Gorgonzola dolce is the one to use, not piccante. It melts beautifully rather than staying in firm chunks, and the flavour is creamy and mild enough that it does not fight the chestnuts.
- If you are baking two pizzas in a session and tweaking ratios or keeping notes on timing, DoughRise Pro lets you save unlimited formulas with full bake history so you can actually remember what you changed between attempts.
- Lay the pancetta slices directly onto the dough before it goes in the oven. It renders and crisps beautifully at high heat and catches slightly at the edges, which is exactly what you want.
METHOD
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour, water, active starter and olive oil in a large bowl. Mix until no dry flour remains, then leave covered for 30 minutes. Add the salt, squeeze it into the dough with your fingers, and work it in until fully incorporated. Cover and leave at room temperature.
- Build strength over the first two hours. Perform four sets of coil folds spaced 30 minutes apart during the first two hours of fermentation. After the final fold, leave the dough covered and undisturbed. Total fermentation at around 20–22°C should take 6–8 hours from when you added the starter. Cooler autumn kitchens will push this toward the longer end, which is fine. Use the fermentation timing calculator if you are unsure about your kitchen temperature.
- Divide and shape into balls. Once the dough has grown by around 50–75% and looks airy and domed, turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into two equal pieces (roughly 330g each). Shape each into a tight ball by pulling the edges underneath and creating surface tension, then place them on a lightly oiled tray, spaced apart. Cover with a damp cloth and leave at room temperature for 1–2 hours before stretching.
- Roast the chestnuts (if using whole ones). If your chestnuts are already vacuum-packed and cooked, just break them roughly with your hands. If you are starting from raw, score each shell in a cross, roast at 200°C fan for 20–25 minutes, then peel while still warm. Either way, keep the pieces chunky.
- Preheat your oven. Get your oven to its absolute maximum, ideally 250°C fan or higher, with a heavy baking steel or thick baking stone on the top shelf. Give it at least 45–60 minutes to properly heat through. A well-heated surface is what gives you blistering and a base that does not go soggy under the toppings.
- Stretch the first dough ball. Flour your surface generously and press the dough ball flat with your fingertips, working from the centre outward and leaving a thicker rim around the edge. Lift it and use the backs of your hands to stretch it gently to around 28–30 centimetres. Let gravity do most of the work. Transfer onto a well-floured peel or the back of a baking tray.
- Add the base and toppings. Spread a thin layer of crème fraîche across the dough, leaving the rim clear. Season with a pinch of black pepper and a little nutmeg. Scatter over the broken chestnuts, then distribute the gorgonzola in small pieces across the pizza. Lay the pancetta slices on top and finish with a few thyme leaves.
- Bake. Slide the pizza onto your hot steel or stone and bake for 10–12 minutes, until the crust is puffed and charred in patches and the pancetta is crisp. Keep an eye on it from around 8 minutes as all ovens behave differently at high heat.
- Finish and serve. As soon as the pizza comes out, drizzle over the honey in a thin zigzag and scatter a small handful of rocket across the top. The heat from the pizza will just wilt it slightly. Slice immediately and eat while everything is still molten and the base still has its crunch.
Why this works
That resting period after dividing is doing real work. The dough has just been handled and is tight and springy. Giving it time to relax allows the structure to loosen so the dough opens out easily when you stretch it, without tearing or snapping back. Rushing this stage is the reason most home pizza bases end up thick in the middle and thin at the edges.
INTO THE OVEN
Scaling this up for a group or want to nail the dough ratios for a different batch size? The free DoughRise Baker's Percentages Calculator makes it easy to adjust quantities without guessing.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by veda kiran on Unsplash
