Pizza 'claminara'

Shellfish topped pizzas or pizzette have been right on trend recently and here's a great version from Mitch Tonks fab new cookbook Rockfish (which has a whole load of other recipes I want to cook).

Mitch writes: "There is nothing not to like about this dish and it can be easily made at home. Garlic, crisp bread and a creamy topping of sweet clams.

The method was inspired by Pizza Pilgrims, the best pizza guys in London. During the lockdown of 2020 they launched an at-home pizza kit that fascinated me, and I watched their video on how to make a delicious pizza in a frying pan. It was genius and it works!

Take the time to make this dish. It’s super. If you like folded pizza, just fold it over before cooking and enjoy a ‘clamzoni’.

MAKES 4

For the dough

a 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast

500g strong white flour

325ml tepid water

1 tablespoon olive oil

5g salt

5g caster sugar

For the sauce

1kg live clams

100ml white wine

1 bay leaf

1 peperoncini – hot red chilli

20g butter

20g plain flour

200ml milk

2 garlic cloves, grated

a handful of chopped curly parsley

To finish

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

1 mozzarella ball (about 125g), roughly torn

Make the dough by mixing together the yeast, flour, water, olive oil, salt and sugar. Knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes to make a nice elastic dough. Place in a bowl, cover with a tea towel or clingfilm and leave to rise until doubled in size. This will take 1–1. hours depending on room temperature. Knock the dough back, then divide into 4 portions. Pinch and shape each into a ball and leave under the cover of a towel to prove for 30 minutes.

To make the sauce, prepare the clams. First check that all the shells are undamaged and tightly shut (or close when tapped). Rinse under cold running water to remove any grit or sand, then put the clams in a pan with the wine, bay and chilli. Cover and steam the clams until they open, about 2 minutes. When cooled, remove the clams from their shells, keeping the meat and the liquid; discard the shells and any clams that didn’t open as well as the bay leaf and chilli.

Melt the butter in a smaller pan and stir in the flour. Cook for a couple of minutes to make a roux. Mix the clam cooking liquid and the milk together and pour gradually into the roux, stirring or whisking to make a smooth white sauce. Add the garlic and parsley and simmer for 3–4 minutes. The sauce should be creamy and quite thick. Add the clam meat and stir through. Set aside.

Shape each ball of dough into a disc to fit the pan you are going to use. Push up a raised rim all around.

Preheat the grill. Heat your ovenproof frying pan over a high heat and, when hot, place one of the pizza dough discs in it. Spread a quarter of the clam sauce over the pizza, up to the raised rim. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan and dot some mozzarella liberally all over the pizza. Cook for 4–5 minutes or until the bottom of the pizza is crisp and the edges are starting to rise.

Place the pan under the hot grill to finish cooking – the edges will rise and blister and the cheese will melt and brown. Once the pizza looks full of appeal, take it out and serve, then repeat with the remaining pizza dough discs and topping.

What to drink: I definitely fancy an Italian white wine with this - most likely vermentino but other Italian whites like verdicchio would work too.

From The Rockfish Cookbook by Mitch Tonks available from therockfish.co.uk or the restaurants and Amazon. Photograph © Chris Terry

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Flageolet Beans with Preserved Lemon Mayo

Many of this year's most appealing cookbooks are vegetarian which should be welcome to all of us who are looking for new ways of cooking and serving veg. This delicious recipe comes from Vegetarian Sheet Pan Cooking by food writer and private chef Liz Franklin.

Liz writes: This easy-peasy combo of crispy, lightly charred broccoli, soft garlicky beans, crunchy lemony crumbs and zippy, unctuous preserved lemon mayo makes a fabulous light lunch.

SERVES 4

for the mayo

1 egg

1 garlic clove, grated

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

juice of 1/2 lemon

250 ml/1 cup plus 1 tbsp sunflower oil

1/4–1/2 preserved lemon

350 g/12 oz. purple sprouting broccoli

1 x 400-g/14-oz. can flageolet beans

3 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

a large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

3 tbsp panko crumbs

zest of 1 lemon

To make the preserved lemon mayonnaise, put the egg, grated garlic, Dijon mustard and lemon juice into a jug/pitcher. Whiz everything together using a stick blender. Slowly add the oil, keeping the blender going and pouring in a steady stream, until all the oil is incorporated and the mixture is thick and light.

Rinse the salt from the preserved lemon, remove the inner flesh and discard. Finely chop the softened skin and add it to the mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 180ËšC (350ËšF) Gas 4. Trim the broccoli. Leave the stalks quite long, but peel away any tough bits using a vegetable peeler. Lay the broccoli over a sheet pan and cook for 10–15 minutes, until the broccoli is al dente, but starting to crisp on the florets. Drain and rinse the beans. Pop them into a bowl and add the oil, chopped garlic and parsley. Remove the broccoli from the oven and spoon the beans over. Mix the panko crumbs and lemon zest together and scatter this over

the top. Return the sheet pan to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the beans are warmed through. Take care not to leave the pan in for too long, or the beans will dry and crack – they just need to be warm rather than super-hot. Serve with the preserved lemon mayo.

What to drink: It would depend a bit on what else you serve with it but I'd be inclined to serve a crisp dry Italian white like a verdicchio or vermentino with this dish.

Extracted from Vegetarian Sheet Pan Cooking by Liz Franklin published by Ryland Peters & Small at £14.99. Photograph © Steve Painter.

Barbequed brochette of prawns, squid and courgette with sauce vierge

A stunning recipe from Bruce Poole's cookbook Bruce's Cookbook that shows barbeques don't have to be all about burgers and ribs.

Bruce's restaurant Chez Bruce in Wandsworth in south London, is a place where chefs - and food writers - like to go when they're off-duty. This is one of the simpler recipes in the book which by and large isn't one of those 'quick'n'easy' volumes but a serious collection of recipes for people who want to turn out Michelin-standard - but not fiddly - food. A must-buy for any cookbook collector.

Serves 4 as a main course or more in smaller form as part of a bigger barbecue offering

2 large courgettes, topped and tailed
salt
8 fresh baby squid, each one no longer than 10cm, cleaned by the fishmonger
12 large, raw prawns, thawed if frozen
1 lemon
For the sauce vierge
6 large ripe plum tomatoes, blanched and skinned
2 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
your best olive oil
1 small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and torn

Light the barbecue. Slice the courgettes lengthways on a mandolin into thin, 2mm-thick slices. Sprinkle with salt and leave to disgorge in a colander for half an hour or so.

To make the sauce vierge, separate the tomato flesh from the seeds and pulp and discard the latter. Cut the flesh into neat 1cm dice and combine with the shallots in a mixing bowl. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Leave for 15 minutes to encourage the salt to get to work with the toms. Add a good slug of olive oil and the torn basil. Adjust the seasoning and reserve at room temperature.

Dry the courgettes on absorbent kitchen paper and roll them up into tight coils. Fold each squid in half. Thread the folded squid, the courgette coils and the prawns on to the skewers evenly. Don’t worry unduly if there is an uneven number of courgettes.

Season the brochettes with salt and pepper just prior to grilling. Place them without any oil on to the barbecue and cook until pleasantly charred all over – about 5 minutes in total. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. Serve with the sauce vierge and perhaps some couscous, or a cold rice or pasta salad.

What to drink: Plenty of possibilities - a crisp, elegant Sauvignon Blanc, an Albario or a dry Italian white like a Vermentino would all be good. Or - and I suspect Bruce might well go for this himself - a bone dry Alsace grand cru Riesling.