Pizza prosciutto e ruggola: Prosciutto and argula pizza

Featured as part of our Cooks and their Books series, this recipe comes courtesy of Manuela Darling-Gansser, inveterate traveller and passionate amateur cook. More Manuela Darling-Gansser recipes

Ingredients

1 quantity pizza dough

1 x 400 g (14 oz) can Italian peeled tomatoes

1 small can (about 150 g/5 oz) tomato paste (optional)

1–2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 chilli, finely sliced

100 g (31⁄2 oz) prosciutto di Parma, left in long slices

Virgin olive oil

1 bunch arugula (rocket) leaves, roughly chopped

50 g (2 oz) piece of parmigiano

Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 240°C (460°F). Roll out some pizza dough on an oiled oven tray. It should not be thicker than 1⁄2 cm (1⁄4 in).

Drain tomatoes of all their liquid. Chop them roughly, drain again: the tomatoes should not be wet.You can add the tomato concentrate to make the taste stronger.

Spread garlic and chilli evenly on the pizza base, add the tomatoes and then some prosciutto. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pizza. Cook in the very hot conventional oven for about 5–10 minutes, or in a pizza oven if you have one for about 3–5 minutes, until bottom of base is coloured and crunchy.

Take out of the oven.With a potato peeler, slice some parmigiano over the pizza and, lastly, top with the arugula.Then drizzle some more virgin olive oil over the pizza and grind some black pepper on top and salt if needed.

Recipe from Under The Olive Tree by Manuela Darling-Gansser, with photographs by Simon Griffiths. Published by Hardie Grant Books.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.