Wholemeal pizza with kale pesto, 44p.

November 21, 2014 19 Comments

I make a lot of pizza for the kids as a treat – and don’t feel at all guilty about sneaking wholemeal flour into the base and vegetables on top. I thought I’d go the whole hog with this one, and dollop kale pesto on top, a whole year after the ‘kale pesto’ row with a certain columnist at the Daily Mail.

For the pizza: (Served 1 adult plus 2 children):

210g wholemeal flour, 15p
7g dried active yeast, 4p
125ml warm water
1 tbsp oil (vegetable or sunflower), 2p
1 tsp sugar, >1p
½ tsp table salt, >1p
3 tbsp tomato puree, 11p
125g ball of mozzarella, torn or grated, 50p
70g cream cheese, 18p

For the kale pesto (you’ll use around 1/6 of it in the pizza, so the rest can be frozen or kept in a jar in the fridge…)

50g hard strong cheese, grated, 63p
1 fat clove of garlic, roughly chopped, 2p
100g raw kale, chopped, 50p
50g sunflower seeds (optional, but great), 43p
100ml oil, 13p
1 tbsp lemon juice (bottled is fine), 3p
A splash of water to loosen

Pour 70g of the flour into a bowl with the yeast and stir together slowly as you add the warm water. As soon as it’s come together, add the oil, sugar, salt and remaining flour, and stir again until everything is combined. This should take less than a minute. Tip the dough on to a floured surface and knead until it’s springy.

Pop it into a floured bowl, cover with cling film and leave it to rise – wholemeal flour can be a bit stubborn so I give mine around an hour and a half to puff up to double its size, and usually put it in the boiler cupboard or somewhere else warm.

Meanwhile, to make the kale pesto, put the hard cheese and garlic into a blender. Add the kale, sunflower seeds, oil and lemon or lime juice and blitz until smooth-ish (add water to loosen if necessary). Dust the bottom of your baking tray with semolina, if you have it, or flour if you haven’t.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.

Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the dough into a square 2–3mm thick. Spread the tomato puree on to the base, add some mozzarella, and dollops of the pesto. Add a few splodges of cream cheese and drizzle the top with a little oil.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden and crispy.

As ever, my costings are worked out based on Sainsburys, and the Basics range where available, and were correct at the time of publication. For a more detailed list of prices and calculations (and a nose at what I actually buy to make the most out of my grocery shopping), click here:
http://agirlcalledjack.com/2014/11/13/my-shopping-essentials-and-how-i-calculate-recipe-costs/

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MxJackMonroe
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack

 

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Categories: BREADS, Guardian Food, Recipes & Food, RECIPES UNDER 50P, RECIPES UNDER £1, VEGETARIAN