Name: Gill Meller’s Fresh Springtime Herb Pizza
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 32 min
Yield: Four 12-inch (30-centimetre) pizzas (using 250-gram dough balls) or three 16-inch (40-centimetre) pizzas (using 330-gram dough balls)

Gill Meller’s Fresh Herb Pizza

Nature lover, cook and “Outside” author Gill Meller often finds meal inspiration in his idyllic surrounds of his native Dorset. This fresh herb pizza is no exception. With the countryside currently abloom around him, it makes sense that Gill has come up with a recipe for a pie that’s fresh, simple and all about bright, herby flavours.

Here, tomato sauce and meat get passed over in favour of parsley, chives, spring onions and tangy lemon, making this a welcome dish among vegetarians, too. In Gill’s part of the world, stinging nettles grow in abundance throughout the year, but we’ve swapped in fresh spinach leaves (or fresh chard) for an equally impressive pizza that full of flavour.

Difficulty

Servings

Four 30-centimetre pizzas (using 250-gram dough balls) or three 40-centimetre pizzas (using 330-gram dough balls)

Prep Time

30 minutes

(not including dough prep)

Cook Time

1 to 2 minutes

By Gill Meller

Note

For the pizza dough, we recommend our Classic Pizza Dough recipe (just be sure to set aside 3 to 4 hours for proofing before cooking).

Method

1: Fire up your oven, aiming for 400 °C to 450 °C on your baking stone.

You can check this quickly, accurately and from a safe distance using an infrared thermometer.

Tip: If you're using wood pellets (Gill’s preference), it will be about 20 minutes before you’re ready to cook pizza, but you can start cooking the spinach (or chard) almost immediately.

Bowl of dough next to a bowl of fresh mozzarella, a bowl of salt, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, pepper, lemon, parsley, chives, spring onions, nettles and fennel on a wood chopping board.

2: Place the washed spinach into your cast iron skillet or a medium-sized ovenproof pan, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and place over medium-high heat.

Stir every minute or so until the leaves are soft and wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes. Let them cool, then squeeze out excess liquid and set aside.

3: Place the parsley leaves, chives and fennel tops on a cutting board and chop them finely.

Tear the mozzarella into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add the chopped herbs, grated garlic, lemon zest, spring onions and half the olive oil. Season everything with a good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then tumble together.

4: Stretch your first dough ball out on a lightly-floured surface.

Push the air from the centre out toward the crust, then use your fingers to stretch the base to about 12 inches (30 centimetres).

Two hands placing cooked nettles, herby mozzarella and spring onions on stretched pizza dough on a wooden chopping board.

5: Arrange a quarter of the cooked spinach over the first stretched pizza base.

Scatter a quarter of the herby mozzarella and spring onions across the top and finish with a drizzle of your best olive oil.

6: Dust the peel with a touch of semolina, then slide it under the pizza and launch it into the oven.

Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, using the peel to rotate the pizza every 20 seconds to ensure an even bake.

7: Remove from the oven, cut into six slices, serve and enjoy.

8: Repeat this process with the remaining pizzas.

Gill Meller

Gill Meller is a UK-based chef, award-winning food writer, food stylist and cookery teacher. Gill works closely with chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage, and appears regularly on the celebrated Channel 4 series. A contributor to the Observer, Guardian, Waitrose Food, Telegraph and Country Living to name a few, Gill’s recipe column can be found in the award-winning delicious. magazine every month. Gill's first book, Gather (2016), won the Fortnum & Mason Award for Best Debut Food Book, and both Time (2018) and Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower (2020) were nominated for the Guild of Food Writers’ Cookbook of the Year. He is also the author of the River Cottage Handbook on Outdoor Cooking and, more recently, Outside: Cooking Outdoors - Recipes for the Wild (2022).