Wood-fired pizza with fennel salami, mozzarella and black olives

Serves - 2

You’ll need

• 2 pizza dough balls
• 4 tbsp passata
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated or crushed
• 200g mozzarella, torn into pieces
• 80g fennel salami, thinly sliced
• Small handful black olives, pitted
• Small handful fresh basil leaves
• Fine semolina or flour, for dusting
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Get everything ready

If your dough has been in the fridge, bring it out 1–2 hours before cooking so it has time to relax. Mix the passata with the olive oil, garlic and a small pinch of salt in a bowl. Tear the mozzarella, slice the olives if they are large, and get all your toppings lined up before you start. Pizza is much happier when you are ready for it.

2. Shape the bases

Dust your work surface lightly with semolina or flour, then stretch each dough ball into a round about 10–12 inches across. Use your hands rather than a rolling pin if you can – you want to keep a bit of life in the edges rather than flattening the whole thing into obedience.

3. Top the pizzas

Spoon half the tomato mixture over each base and spread it out thinly, leaving a small border around the edge. Add the mozzarella, then lay over the fennel salami and scatter on the black olives. A little black pepper over the top does no harm at all.

4. Cook until properly blistered

Slide the pizzas into a hot wood-fired oven and cook for 60–90 seconds, turning as needed, until the crust is puffed and blistered, the cheese is melted, and the salami has just started to catch at the edges. If you are using a very hot pizza oven at home, the same principle applies – quick cooking, high heat, no lingering.

5. Finish and serve

Lift the pizzas out, scatter over the basil, and leave them for a minute before slicing if you can bear it. Serve straight away while the cheese is still molten and the crust still has some crunch to it.

A couple of helpful notes

- If your mozzarella seems especially wet, let it drain on kitchen paper for a bit before using. Otherwise you risk a soggy middle, which nobody is chasing.
- Go easy on the toppings. Pizza looks generous when it is balanced, not when it is struggling under the weight of everything you own.
- A tiny drizzle of chilli oil at the end works very nicely if you want a bit more swagger.