Top That: Bacon and Sprouts (à la Motorino)

Sprouts get a lot of bad press and this pizza is a nightmare to sell. But I refuse to back down as it's one of my all time favourites and I've yet to meet anyone who hasn't enjoyed it having given it a try. There's something about the way the sprout leaves char at the edges and the combination with pancetta or smoked bacon is an all time classic.

I first had this pizza at Motorino as part of our New York pizza tour but you can get it much closer to home from ourselves or the excellent Honest Crust who are also staunch advocates of sprouts on a pizza.

Ingredients

Sourdough base

Mozzarella

Slithers of garlic
Sprout leaves
Smoked bacon or pancetta

Olive oil

Extra prep?

Some people mandolin the sprouts to get the slices fine enough, we just use the leaves and follow the approach almost verbatim from the Slice blog, here's how.

Bertha's in Bristol

Honest Crust in Altrincham

What I'd do differently
Find a way to get more people to order it, they're missing out.

Top That: Roast Chestnut and Rosemary

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."

Probably the last thing you want to hear in January but trust me it's preferable to my tax return so let's catch up on a couple of toppings which went down well last month.

Ingredients

Sourdough base

Mozzarella

Roasted chestnuts, shelled and chopped

Rosemary

Extra prep?

There's an art to shelling chestnuts, one I've yet to acquire even after tackling 3kgs of the little critters. Make sure you work on them while they're hot though, this reduced the frequency of cuts under my nails and toned down the colourful language.

What I'd do differently
It needs a grind of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil to finish but really not much else. The smell of this pizza alone makes it worth a try even if you have to wait until next year.

Top That: Tomato Masala

Pizza number two was a combination I've wanted to try for a while and relied on a homemade masala paste which I  currently can't get enough of. We use a Simon Hopkinson recipe which has been the basis of some of our more successful curries - make in bulk and keep in the fridge - I wanted to see how it'd work on a pizza.

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Fresh tomatoes, courtesy of our friendly next door neighbour

Masala paste

Basil

Extra prep?

Other than making the masala paste, none.

What I'd do differently

The basil didn't add anything so I wouldn't bother next time, coriander would have worked better but we didn't have any. The peas went on to add a bit of sweetness, the bright green also contrasted nicely with the reds. Next time we'd add some paneer too, that'd make this a real winner.

Top That: Charred Leeks with Capers and Brown Butter

It'd been a while since we'd fired up Bertha, turns out getting married takes up quite a bit of your time. A sunny Bank Holiday Monday formed the perfect excuse though and a great opportunity to try some new toppings. First up a take on a restaurant dish I'd seen on Raymond Blanc's: How to Cook Well, BBQ & Grill program; leeks were thrown directly onto the coals, the idea being was that the core steamed in the charred and soon to be discarded outer leaves and what's left is juicy and tender with a subtle hint of smoke - worth a try at least.

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Leeks

Peas, I used frozen so defrosted in a bit of boiling water

Capers

Butter (soon to be browned)

Extra prep?

Heat the butter in a small pan taking off the heat when it reaches a hazelnut brown colour, stir in the capers and set aside

Throw the leeks straight on the fire, I did this while Bertha was warming up. The outers will blacken completely but you're not eating this bit. Rotate after a couple of minutes and remove when the stem is soft to pinch. Allow to cool and once they're at a temperature to handle grab a few outer leaves from the top and pull down. Discard the blackened outer, slice and set aside the centre.

the fun bit

What I'd do differently
For the last slice, we added some lemon zest which really lifted the flavour so we'll be doing that from the start next time.

The leeks were a real success and I'll definitely use this technique again. The same leeks on a béchamel base with ham or chicken would make a great combination.

Top That: Isle of Wight Ninja

A second topping post following on from last weekend's firing, this one slightly more traditional, a margherita with spicy nduja sausage or as I prefer to call it, the Isle of Wight Ninja. I picked up some stunning Isle of Wight tomatoes from the market, crushed over the dough these were better than any tinned tomatoes I could have used. For a bit of spice I added some nduja, the spicy Calabrian pork sausage and favourite of the Pizza Pilgrims 

keeping it simple, the oregano's not pictured here as that went straight from the plant to the pizza

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Isle of Wight toms

Mozzarella

Fresh Oregano

Parmesan

not a bad looking set of ingredients

Extra prep?

None again, I wouldn't add any extra oil, plenty comes out of the nduja

What I'd do differently

Not much, I'd possible add a chopped chilli for a bit more kick but given every batch of nduja seems to have a different level of spice this is one to adjust to taste

Top That: Stilton Cheeseboard

I've long been a fan of the Serious Eats pizza blog, Slice and in particular their Top This feature which in their own words "show[s] you how to replicate unusually topped restaurant pies at home". Now I'm a pie fan but a pie to me is prefaced by the word "pork" and as a British pizza blogger I'll be sticking with the word pizza. Minor quibble's aside it's a great series and I've enjoyed following their suggestions to create many a memorable pizza at home. As homage to this I'd like to do something similar so here's the first post with one of my own creations, the stilton cheeseboard.

We had a block of stilton in the fridge which was looking pretty sorry for itself and that formed the inspiration for this pizza. Combined with some rosemary from the garden, walnuts for texture and some grapes for a touch of sweetness this turned out reasonably well.

...decided against adding the pancetta and parmesan cheese in the end

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Stilton

Chopped rosemary

Sliced grapes

Walnuts

Mozzarella

Rocket

Olive Oil

ready for Bertha

Extra prep?

None really, although I added the rocket after baking to retain it's freshness

straight out of the oven

... and just before we demolished it

What I'd do differently

The olive oil wasn't needed, a fair amount of oil came out of the stilton. I'd add half a teaspoon of honey next time to balance the acidity and salt in the stilton too.