Puff Pastry Pizzas

Hi everyone BBC2 here! Thanks for looking in on our blog. We do look forward to any and all feedback on our recipes, good, bad or just constructive comments. Anyway back to these puff pastry pizzas, I was driving back from taking Max, our dog, for a run on the beach on Friday (him, not me, doing the running). I was thinking about what to cook for our friends Mary and Len, who were ‘popping in’ for a cuppa, and wondered whether I should pop to the supermarket to get something for lunch? But in one of those ‘master chef’ moments I thought I’d do a ‘mystery box ingredients challenge’ and make lunch out of whatever we had at home. So I gave the supermarket a miss, then spent the whole time thinking on the way home ‘I’m going to have to come out again!’

So I started looking at what we had: a couple of bell peppers; banana shallots; a packet of readymade puff pastry with only 2 days shelf life left (I know that puff pastry tarts have been done before with different combinations of fillings) but I also had a small jar of sundried tomato pesto in the cupboard. This made me think of Italian food so I thought I’d make them pizza! I dressed them like a pizza, using different bits I had left like a few rashers of bacon, that was it I didn’t have to go out again and the puff pastry pizza seemed to be a hit! So please give them a try and, like me, use whatever you have in the cupboard, I do look forward to all and every comment thanks, BBC2.

Ingredients:
500g puff pastry
3 banana shallots cut into fine rings
1 of each red & yellow bell pepper
6 rashers streaky bacon
4/5 heaped tablespoons sundried tomato pesto
2 tablespoons sweet corn
1 cup strong cheddar cheese grated
1 Tbs oil
1 egg (beaten)

Method:
Core and deseed the peppers cutting them in half and place them on a baking tray under a hot grill skin side up, when they are charred, and the skin is blistering, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes and place in one corner of a clean plate for later. In a small frying pan heat the oil, on medium heat, and cook the onions until soft and translucent, but not brown, place them next to the cooked peppers. Using the same frying pan and a little oil, cook the bacon until almost crisp, then cut into small bits and put next to the peppers and onions, I use kitchen scissors to cut the bacon when it has gone cold it’s much easier.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to a rectangle about 45cm/18 inches by 20cm/8 inches then cut it into two so you have two strips 45cm/18 inches by 10cm/4 inches, now cut each strip into three ending up with six bits of pastry about 15cm/6 inches by 10cm/4 inches. With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter (which I also used to cut the rectangles) score a line around the boarder of the rectangle about 2cm/ ½ inch, ensuring not to cut right through the pastry but more so it looks like a picture frame, and using a fork pierce several times through the inner rectangle so the middle does not rise, repeat to all rectangles.

Preheat the oven 200c (190c Fan) and line two baking sheets/pan with greaseproof paper, place three rectangles on each sheet and brush the boarder of each rectangle with a little beaten egg. Using a teaspoon spread the tomato pesto from the centre of each rectangle evenly over the inner part of the base ensuring it does not go onto the egg wash boarder, then divide the onions, bacon, peppers, sweet corn and cheese as though you were doing a topping for a pizza, then place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the pastry has risen and is golden brown and cooked.

BBC1: I must say that the man rose to his self-imposed challenge very well. These made a lovely light lunch and were very tasty. If you left out the bacon they would be suitable for vegetarians and still be as tasty. It was a great use of the sun dried tomato pesto too and Mary & Len seemed to enjoy them very much. These would also make a lovely starter for a meal.