Goats Cheese Pizza with Stuffed Crust & Home-Made Charred Cherry Tomato Sauce

Recipe developed by me for St Helens Farm using their amazing goats cheese!

This hand stretched pizza is something that’s so easy to make, it should be added to your family recipe book and special enough to eat, that it can be brought out for every outside gathering.

When you bring out the outside pizza oven, this is what should be in it!

Less is more with this pizza!

Roll the dough nice and thin and all it needs are hunks of St Helens Farm Mild Goats Cheese that sit on top of tangy red onion with thin slices of sweet red pepper, but that’s only part of the story.

The home-made charred cherry tomato sauce holds up the topping making the perfect bite of slightly sweet, salty and tangy.

If that weren’t enough to make you want to get your rolling pin out of the cupboard, stuffing the crust with St Helens Farm Mature Goats Cheese takes this from just a pizza to something truly moreish.

Cheese in every bite!

Outside on the pizza oven, on a hot BBQ, or using a traditional oven, how its baked is a personal choice, whichever you choose, it’s equally delicious with a crusty bottom and charred cheese filled edges.

Set a tray in the pizza oven, BBQ or into a hot oven to heat up and then just slide the non-stick parchment that’s holding the pizza onto the steaming hot tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or there abouts, and its ready!

Perfect Hand Stretched, Thin Based Pizza with Stuffed Crust & Home-Made Charred Cherry Tomato Sauce.

Go on, give it a go, and enjoy your sweet life!

Slices of goats cheese goodness

 What You Need

Pizza Dough

• 300g Strong Bread Flour

• 170g St Helens Farm Mature Goats Cheese

• 200ml Luke Warm Water – See Tip Box

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil

• 1 Tsp Dried Yeast

• 1 Tsp Salt

Roll the pizza dough nice and thin - fill the edges with St Helens Farm mature goats cheese

 Charred Cherry Tomato Sauce

• 200g Cherry Tomatoes

• 1 Garlic Cloves - Minced

• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

• 1 Tsp Dried Oregano

• 1 Tsp Castor Sugar

• Pinch of Salt

• Pinch of Pepper

Keep the flavours simple with St Helens Farm goats cheese, tangy red onion and sweet red pepper

Topping

• 170g St Helens Farm Mild Goats Cheese

• 1 Medium Red Onion

• 1 Medium red Pepper

Break up the slices of St Helens Farm goats cheese and lay on top of the thin slices of red pepper and red onion.

  How It’s Done

•   Place the flour salt and dried yeast into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and, using fingers, slowly bring the mixture together until it forms a soft dough – See Tip Box

•   Once it comes together, knead the dough becomes smooth and shiny – around 5-7 minutes.

•     Rub a small amount of olive oil around a separate bowl and sit the pizza dough in the bowl.

•    Cover the bowl with cling film and place it in the fridge for around 1 hour or overnight - See Tip Box

•     Meanwhile, time to make the sauce

•   Add the cherry tomatoes to a dry wok or frying pan and let it get very hot.

•      Keep heating the tomatoes, shaking them occasionally until the skins start to turn black and charred and they begin to split releasing their juices - this will take a good few minute- Don’t be in a hurry to get this done and keep shaking the pan to change the position of the tomatoes

•   Once the tomatoes have split, remove the pan from the heat and use a potato masher or back of a fork to smash the tomatoes so they all release their juices and seeds into the pan.

•      Still off the heat, add the olive oil, sugar, minced garlic the dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste and return the pan to the heat.

•    Reduce the heat to low and cook the tomatoes until they start to go thick – around 5-7 minutes – make sure they’re stirred occasionally so they don’t catch on the bottom

•     Remove the pan from the heat and let the tomato sauce cool completely before using it on the pizza dough.

A nice charred crust filled with melted goats cheese

 Assembly

•      Heat the BBQ so that the coals are a nice hot silver colour, or turn the oven on to the highest heat.

•    Place an oven tray, upside down, into the oven or onto a shelf on the BBQ.

•   While the tray heats up, assemble the pizza

•    Dust the work-surface with a little flour

•    Split the dough into three equal pieces or leave whole for one giant pizza – If a large pizza, just adjust the cooking time accordingly.

•     Use a rolling pin and dustings of flour, so it doesn’t stick, to roll out the dough so it’s very thin and stretched.

•     Cut a piece of non-stick baking parchment to the size of the baking tray, and slide the pizza onto the paper.

•    Open the St Helens Farm Mature Goats Cheese and slice it up, then cut each slice in half long ways.

•    Place the cheese around the edges of the dough and fold the edges of the dough over so the cheese is enclosed in the dough.

•     Peel the red onion and slice as thin as possible

•     De-seed the red pepper and slice as thin as possible

•    Take a few teaspoons of the charred tomato sauce and spread it on the bottom of the pizza, up to the stuffed edges – Don’t add too much as the bottom will be soggy when cooked.

•      Pile up the red onion and then the red pepper on top of the tomato sauce.

•     Open and roughly slice the St Helens Farm Mild Goats Cheese and break up the slices onto the pizza.

•    Take out the hot oven tray and slide the non-stick parchment, with the pizza on, onto the hot tray

•     Slide the tray into the hot oven or onto a shelf over the hot coals of the BBQ.

•      If the BBQ has a lid, close it during baking.

•    Bake until the edges are a nice golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbling -Approx. 12 minutes in the oven – See Tip Box

• Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes then slice and enjoy.

Hot straight from the oven or cold for tomorrows’ breakfast, either is great!

  Tip Box

•   Make ahead- There are so many elements of this pizza that can be made ahead, stored in the fridge and brought out just to come to room temperature before using them.

o   Dough – Make the dough the day before, into a bowl, cover with cling film and into the fridge. It tasted even more authentic the next day after the yeast has had a chance to let loose its flavour into the flour.

o   Tomato Sauce – This tomato sauce is best used cold on top of the raw dough, so making it the day before and storing in a sealed container in the fridge not only is best, but it also gives the flavours time to meld into something that tastes as though you’ve spent hours making.

• Water – The dough should be soft but not sticky when its ready. So, if 200ml is too much and the dough is too sticky, add a few tablespoons of flour to get the right consistency

•      Oven – All ovens and BBQs vary so adjust the cooking time accordingly

Thin and beautifully charred with layers of melted goats cheese, what s not to love!?