If you don't know much about Mexican food, you should. According to Thomasina Miers, it's some of the most vibrant and flavoursome you might find – although we appreciate you might not be able to get there, so we've shared this recipe from her book so you can recreate the flavours at home.
Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers' shares her recipe for chorizo, new potato and chile de árbol pizza
Inspired by the flat-style pizzas sold after hours on the streets of Oaxaca in Mexico, this recipe, from Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers, packs a mighty punch with fiery chilli oil
Serves 4-6
Preparation time 90 mins
Cooking time 15 mins
Ingredients
- 500g new potatoes, scrubbed
- Olive oil
- 500g mozzarella (or two large balls)
- 120g thinly sliced chorizo
- A small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
- 80g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- Chilli oil to drizzle
- Two handfuls of rocket
- 1–2 avocados, peeled, de-stoned and sliced
For the pizza dough
- 5g dried yeast
- 275ml warm water
- 400g type ‘00’ or strong bread flour, plus more for rolling
- 1–2 tsp fine sea salt
- A good slug of extra virgin olive oil
- A good pinch of sugar
Method
- For the dough, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil with the water and leave to sit for a few minutes.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl (or the bowl of a food mixer) and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yeast mix and using a fork, gradually bring in the flour from the sides and swirl it into the liquid to form a wet dough. Then knead by hand, or with a dough hook, until the dough is satiny and smooth. Put it in a clean bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm room for 90 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240°C/465°F/gas mark nine, or to its highest setting, and place a baking stone inside. Alternatively, use a baking tray lined with non-stick paper or dusted with flour. Simmer the potatoes until just tender in boiling, salted water. Cool slightly and then slice into thin rounds.
- Flour your hands and the worktop, then punch down the dough, knead for a few minutes and divide into two. Shape each piece into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface into 5mm thick rounds or, if you prefer, long, round oblongs. You can roll these out 20 minutes before baking. Transfer to a couple of well-floured baking sheets.
- Drizzle the dough with a little olive oil, then top with torn up little pieces of the mozzarella, the potato slices, chorizo, thyme and Parmesan and some chile de árbol oil. Slide the first pizza onto the hot stone or baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until crispy and golden. Scatter with rocket, more chile de árbol oil, sea salt and slices of avocado.
Recipe taken from Chilli Notes by Thomasina Miers (Hodder & Stoughton, £25); wahaca.co.uk
