Wholemeal pizza with kale pesto. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

For the pizza

210g wholemeal flour
7g dried active yeast
125ml warm water
1 tbsp oil (vegetable, sunflower, groundnut, olive)
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp tomato puree
A ball of mozzarella, torn or grated
70g cream cheese

For the kale pesto

50g hard strong cheese, grated
1 fat clove of garlic, roughly chopped
100g raw kale, chopped
50g sunflower seeds (optional, but great)
100ml oil
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
A splash of water to loosen

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.

Pour 70g of the flour into a bowl with the yeast and stir together slowly as you add the warm water. As soon as it’s come together, add the oil, sugar, salt and remaining flour, and stir again until everything is combined. This should take less than a minute. Tip the dough on to a floured surface and knead until it’s springy.

Pop it into a floured bowl, cover with cling film and leave it to rise – wholemeal flour can be a bit stubborn so I give mine around an hour and a half to puff up to double its size, and usually put it in the boiler cupboard or somewhere else warm.

Meanwhile, to make the kale pesto, put the hard cheese and garlic into a blender. Add the kale, sunflower seeds, oil and lemon or lime juice and blitz until smooth-ish (add water to loosen if necessary). Dust the bottom of your baking tray with semolina, if you have it, or flour if you haven’t.

Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the dough into a square 2–3mm thick. Spread the tomato puree on to the base, add some mozzarella, and dollops of the pesto. Add a few splodges of cream cheese and drizzle the top with a little oil.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden and crispy.