Seafood pizza

• 250 g/9 oz/1¾ cups strong white bread flour or Tipo 00 flour, plus extra for dusting
• 125 ml/4 fl oz/½ cup lukewarm water
• 15 g/½ oz fresh (compressed/ cake) yeast or 7-g sachet
• Fast-action dried yeast
• 1 x 400-g/14½-oz can of plum tomatoes
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 250 g/9 oz cockles in their shells/clams
• 200 g/7 oz cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 50 g/2 oz small raw prawns (shrimp), peeled
• 150 g/5 oz squid, cleaned and cut into rings 
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
• Handful of fresh basil leaves
• Olive oil, for making dough, frying and greasing
• Chilli oil*, for drizzling
• Salt and pepper

1. Sift the flour onto the worktop and mix in 1 teaspoon of salt and the dried yeast (if using). Shape the flour into a mound with a well in the centre. Put the lukewarm water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl, add the fresh yeast (if using) and stir until it dissolves. Pour into the well in the flour and mix to make a dough.
2. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. The longer you knead, the better the dough will be. Shape it into a ball, place in a large bowl and cover the bowl with cling film (plastic wrap). Leave the dough to rise at room temperature for 3 hours by which time it should have almost doubled in size.
3. Blitz the plum tomatoes using a hand blender or chop them finely. Simmer the tomatoes in a saucepan for about 5 minutes or until they have thickened slightly to make a sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan (skillet) and sauté the shallot for 2 minutes. Season with a pinch of pepper and immediately add the cockles/clams. Cover the pan and cook the cockles, shaking the pan every 30 seconds and lifting the lid occasionally to check if their shells have opened. Once they’ve all opened, take the pan off the heat and remove the cockle meat from the shells. Set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
6. Put the ball of dough on a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes to knock any air out of it. Roll out the dough to a large round about 5 mm/¼ inch thick. Brush a baking sheet with oil or line with baking parchment (baking paper). Lift the dough onto the sheet and press it out to the edges so the dough covers the entire baking sheet.
7. Spoon the tomato sauce over the dough, spreading it evenly, and arrange the cherry tomato quarters on top. In a bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of oil with the prawns (shrimp), squid and cockles until the seafood is coated. Spoon over the pizza base, scatter over the oregano and drizzle with olive oil. Bake the pizza for 10 minutes in the oven until the crust is golden brown.
8. Remove the pizza from the oven and scatter over the basil leaves. Serve with chilli oil to drizzle over and give the pizza a spicy flavour.

*Chilli oil is easy to make. Just add fresh chillies (chiles) to a bottle of good-quality olive oil, making sure the chillies are submerged in the oil. The more chillies you add and the longer you leave them in the bottle, the hotter the oil will be.

This recipe is courtesy of Bart’s Fish Tales by Bart van Olphen, published by Pavilion Books. Image credit to David Loftus.