The evening before you intend to serve them, prepare your dough. It needs to ferment for about 18 hours after which you’ll form it into balls for individual flatbreads. After forming, they can be covered & refrigerated up to 3 days, so you can easily make them ahead.
Before baking you’ll need to heat your oven and your pizza stone for a solid hour as hot as your oven goes (500-550°F usually). If you’re using the back of a baking sheet to bake them on (the alternative to a stone), you will not need to heat the baking sheet but will still need to heat the oven. When it’s time to bake you’ll switch the oven to broil.
Prepare the pesto. It can be made up to a week in advance or even months in advance if you freeze it, making this spring treat ideal to make in bulk and then save for use when you’d like a taste of spring later in the year. Place all ingredients except the olive oil in the bowl of a mini food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped and combined. Don’t over process; pesto should have texture and not be smooth. Add the olive oil and pulse to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, perhaps adding more salt or lemon juice, to your liking. Cover until ready to serve and refrigerate if not using that day.
Form your dough according to the instructions in the recipe on top of your pizza peel which should be dusted with cornmeal or flour. I prefer cornmeal. You want to top them on the peel as once topped they will be difficult to transfer.
To top, first brush lightly with olive oil. Then spread a couple of spoonfuls of pesto evenly over the flatbread. On top of that smash about 3 generous spoonfuls of ricotta on the pizza. I don’t spread it evenly but rather just flatten a couple of dollops on top. Arrange asparagus spears on top, lightly sprinkle, add any other toppings you like at this point except egg or flowers, and then lightly sprinkle with sea salt.
Turn oven to broil when ready to cook, and bake flatbreads 5-7 minutes beneath the broiler (your stone should be heated on the highest rack in the oven as per the instructions). Mine usually take about 5. If topping with egg, I add it at the two minute mark. To transfer uncooked pizzas to the stone use a very quick, small back and forth motion to shimmy them onto the stone (which should remain in the oven). To remove, scoop them off with the peel. Top with herbs or flowers as desired, slice, and serve hot with small lemon wedges & a pinch of sea salt on the side. If I’ve added and egg, I salt the egg lightly once I remove it from the oven.
