Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1137604
FOOD 16 | SUNDAY • 30 JUNE 2019 maltatoday • 200g bread flour • 200g plain flour • 1tsp miso paste • 2tbsp olive oil • 2 tsp active dry yeast • Water, as needed • 500g tomato passata • 2 cloves garlic • 1 large aubergine • Olive oil, as needed • Semolina, as needed • 2 drained balls of Buffalo mozzarella • 4 sprigs oregano • 1tsp sugar • Salt, as needed • 200g nduja 1. The night before, combine half of the bread flour and half of the plain flour with the yeast in a bowl and add enough water to form a porridge-like consist- ency. Cover with a clean dish cloth and allow to ferment and rise overnight. 2. The following morning, uncover the bowl and add in the miso, 2 tsp of olive oil and the remaining flour. Bring it together and add a little bit more water if it is too dry. 3. Knead consistently for ten minutes. The consistency of the dough you are trying to achieve is a smooth, soft and elastic. It should be pliable and come together easily in aball. You do not want a dough that is too sticky or difficult to work with. If this is the case add more flour to the mix. 4. Grease the inside of a clean bowl with olive oil, place the dough in there and cover with oiled clingfilm. Allow to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size. 5. Preheat the oven to its highest tempera- ture and place the pizza stone inside. 6. In the meantime slice the aubergine into slices 2 cm thick and season with salt. Fry in a dry pan adding a good drizzle of ol- ive oil to the pan halfway through. Once cooked, remove from the pan and set aside to cool. Continue with the remain- ing aubergine. 7. For the tomato sauce slice the garlic cloves and fry in a little bit of olive oil until slightly golden. Add the passata and the sugar and simmer for around ten minutes. 8. Once you are ready to construct your pizza, sprinkle a good amount of semo- lina onto the surface. Take a fist-sized amount of pizza dough and use your fingers to press all around the circumfer- ence of the dough around 2cm away from the edge to form the crust. Giving the dough time to rest in between mo- tion, gently tease the dough pulling it from opposite ends whist rotating until it opens up into a circle around the size of a main course plate. The base must be quite thin but not thin enough that it tears easily. 9. Turn a baking sheet upside down and sprinkle a generous amount of semolina onto the surface. Place the pizza base on top. 10. Spread the base with a thin layer of the tomato sauce and tear one quarter of the mozzarella on top. Dot small pieces of nduja around the pizza ( depending on how spicy it is) and drape a few slices of aubergine on top of that. To finish tear some oregano leaves. 11. Open the oven door and carefully shift the pizza onto the hot stone. Bake for around 6 to 8 minutes or until the dough is properly browned and the cheese is sizzling away. 12. Take it out of the oven and drizzle with a good glug of finishing olive oil. 13. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and ingredients. Pizza with Nduja and Aubergine CHARLES GRECH Bin 2 Shiraz Mataro 2014 Penfolds, Australia Bin 2 Shiraz Mataro is a classic Penfolds wine, steeped in nineteenth-century tradition. Typically it is a generous medium-bodied wine based on shiraz, but shot with the aromatics and muscular strength of mataro. It's best to drink early, but like many of Penfolds reds can last the distance in the cellar. Bouquet: Scents of black olive and dark black cherry laced with mixed spices/herbs, Dark chocolate notes and a skerrick of liquorice. Palate: Mataro's green tea-leaf characters immediately apparent, as is Mataro's inky/ rubbly palate imprint. Grainy/particulate/powdery tannins throughout. Ditto, barely perceptible oak (some vanillin, crushed biscotti f lavours). Evocative Shiraz fruits and savouriness dominate the mid-palate. Refreshingly medium-bodied, enticingly textured. Food Affinities: veal, roast chicken, planked salmon. Exclusively imported by Charles Grech & Co Ltd Valley Road, Birkikara T: 21 444 400 Fine quality Italian wines of tradition Irpina. Donnachiara, winery located in Montefalcione (Avellino), with its vineyards that stretch along the hills typical of the Irpinia, produces white wines and red wines of high quality including Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino, Taurasi DOCG but also sparkling like Santè Falanghina. Soft crushing of the selected grapes and after that cold decanting of the must fermentation at 57-60°F in steel vats for 15 days. Malolatic fermentation is not done. Full expression of it's territory, the heart of Greco di tufo, with a specific attention to all the factors of maturation of it's aroma's. Nose: Offers fruity flavours of pear, apricot, pineapple and citrus Palate: Smooth, elegant and structured, with good freshness and a great persistence that confirms and amplifies the olfactory sensations. Food Affinities: Perfect with all seafood, pasta with light sauces , white meats and herb cheeses Exclusively imported by Charles Grech & Co. Ltd, Valley Road, Birkirkara T: 2144 4400 Donnachiara Greco di Tufo: DONNACHIARA Debbie Schembri Gourmet Today / Mediterranean Culinary Academy Ingredients Method Serves 4