Hazelnut Crust Pizza and Peppery Rocket by Bettina Campolucci-Bordi

Ingredients

"I love a good pizza! But it's one of the big no-nos when going gluten-free. I have made this at countless retreats and on many occasions at home. I hope you love it as much as I do." - Bettina.

Pizza Base:

210g (1 1/2 cups) gluten-free flour mix
30g (1/4 cup) hazelnuts, ground in a coffee grinder or food processor
375mL (1 1/2 cups) water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil, plus extra for greasing

Toppings:

4 Tbs pumpkin seed pesto (or pesto of choice)
1 red onion, sliced
25g (1/4 cup) chopped sun-dried tomatoes
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 red (bell) pepper, sliced
1/2 yellow (bell) pepper, sliced
Pink Himalayan salt and black pepper to taste

To Serve:

Basil
Rocket (arugula)
Drizzle of olive oil
Micro herbs (optional)
Macadamia ricotta optional, but recommended for special occasions.


Tip:

You can pre-make the pizza base. Get to the stage where you cooked the base in the oven, then wrap it up in greaseproof paper (wax paper,) or cling film (plastic wrap) and freeze until you need it. All you need to do when you feel like pizza is top it off with your favourite toppings and pop it into the oven!

Method

Pizza Base:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (400 F/Gas 6). Add all the pizza base ingredients to a bowl and mix well.

The mixture will be quite runny, almost like a cake batter. Don’t worry, it’s meant to be that way.

Line a baking tray (baking sheet) with greaseproof paper (wax paper) and drizzle a very small amount of olive oil on the bottom. Pour the pizza batter into the tray and make sure you have a thin, even layer.

Topping:

Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until the the dough has solidified.

Once it has, take it out of the oven and it’s ready to be pimped up with toppings. I love this base with a layer of the pumpkin seed pesto and scatterings of red onion, sun-dried tomato, cherry tomatoes and peppers. Add your toppings and put the pizza back in the oven for another 15 minutes until it reaches the desired crispness.

Just before serving, scatter a good helping of basil, rocket and extra drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper. If you have some macadamia ricotta ready-made, add some nice dollops of it on top, too.

Credits: This is an edited extract from Happy Food by Bettina Campolucci Bordi published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $34.99 AU and is available in stores nationally.

Photo Credits: Nassima Rothacker.