Ingredients

1 garlic clove, peeled
a pinch of whole sea salt
a pinch of white pepper
a pinch of chili powder
6-8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
fresh thyme leaves, to taste
fresh oregano, to taste
250-300 g plain seitan, broken into small, bite-sized chunks

Makes 2 servings (or more if served as finger food).

Start by pounding the garlic in a mortar and pestle, then add the salt, pepper, chili, oil, lemon, thyme and oregano. Using the pestle in a circular motion, coarsely grind the mixture then set aside. Break the seitan into small, bite-sized chunks. Place a heavy bottomed pan on the heat and wait until it’s hot. Dip the seitan chunks in the marinade making sure they’re completely covered and cook until they’re evenly golden brown. Transfer the seitan onto a serving plate, pour the left-over marinade (if any) over, and serve. You can also enjoy the seitan as finger food, using toothpicks or skewer sticks.

Makes 2-4 servings (1 pizza).

Ingredients:

For the almond-basil pesto

1 clove garlic

fresh basil leaves (a good handful)

almonds (a good handful)

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

whole sea salt (to taste)

For the tomatoes

4-5 tomatoes (I used Piccadilly, an italian variety. Any other plum tomato, like San Marzano, would work just fine. And I wouldn’t mind trying with cherry tomatoes)

extra virgin olive oil

whole sea salt (to taste)

freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

fresh oregano (a good handful)

For the pizza base

1 cup kamut flour

½ cup warm water

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon whole sea salt

1 teaspoon organic cream of tartar

Directions

Finely chop the basil leaves and garlic with a knife. In a large mortar, crush the almonds with a pestle. Add the chopped basil leaves and garlic and grind the mixture against the sides of the mortar until you get a coarse paste. Add the olive oil and salt and stir well until incorporated.

Slice the tomatoes and drain off the excess water. Place the tomato slices in a bowl, season with a pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle with fresh oregano and olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the water with oil and slowly pour into the flour’s well. Using your hands, fold the flour into the water until mixture comes together. If it’s too wet and sticky, add some more flour. Knead for about 5 minutes and form a ball. Place the dough in a floured bowl, cover it with a damp cloth and let it sit in a warm place for 10 minutes. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board, and dust your hands, the dough, and the rolling pin with a little flour before rolling the dough out. While rolling it to the desired thickness, dust with more flour if necessary. Fit you pizza to a pizza pan or an oiled sheet of parchment paper. You can now poke a few holes with a fork. The pizza is now ready to be cooked.

Place the pizza base in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Spread some pesto evenly over the pizza base and lay over the tomato slices. Top with the remaining pesto. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with some more fresh oregano (when fresh isn’t available, dried will do). Return to bake for another 15 minutes or until the tomatoes soften. Let cool then garnish with some more oregano and olive oil if you like. Slice and serve.

Thoughts, tips, ideas

You can prepare the pesto and the tomatoes either before making the dough or just before rolling it out.

This pizza turns out slightly sweet. It tastes great with pretty much any kind of topping.