Time saver: Phil comes up with a pizza topping combo no self-respecting kid would ever think of eating – so you can have it all to yourself. (Not that I have any kids, but the cat definitely wasn’t interested.)

It’s funny how what I intend to write about doesn’t get written, yet I can somehow find time to write about a pizza most people won’t like. My wife’s been away for a couple of days, and I’ve been living off leftovers and the kindness of friends, so I haven’t done much in the way of cooking. That all changed tonight though, when I finally succumbed to my hunger and whipped up this pizza. No photos unfortunately, I destroyed the evidence rather quickly. (I intend to fix that some time soon, but no promises.)

Just a quick word about pizza bases: tonight I cheated and used a bought one, if you want to do a home made base it’ll be 10 times better. Just remember that the area of a circle = Pi * r² and adjust the topping quantity appropriately. Piece of cake.

Mushroom, blue cheese and pesto pizza

Since pizzas are pretty robust, the quantities here are really just a guide. You’re free to increase/decrease the amount of any of the ingredients according to your taste and judgement, and I’m sure the result will still be good. For most of you, just the title itself is probably all the recipe you need.

• 9″ pizza base (for a 12″ pizza you’ll need to almost double the quantity of topping, and for an 18″ pizza you’ll need four times the quantity)
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp olive oil
• ½ clove or ½ tsp crushed garlic (could use whole clove if it’s small)
• freshly ground black pepper and salt
• 1¼ c grated cheese (125g is roughly 1 cup when grated) (I used Edam, if you’ve got mozarella by all means use it)
• 75g mushrooms, sliced
• 20-30g blue vein cheese
• 2-3 Tbsp basil pesto

1. Pre-heat oven to 230°C (about 450°F). If you’ve got a pizza stone, use it, otherwise just put one of your trays in to heat.
2. Put pizza base on a sheet of baking paper.
3. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, olive oil and garlic, mix well.
4. Spread tomato paste over pizza base, going right to the edges. (If the base doesn’t look saucy enough, just add a bit more tomato paste and olive oil, if it’s too saucy, just spoon some off.)
5. Crack some black pepper and salt over the base, then cover with cheese.
6. Spread mushrooms over the cheese – they’ll shrink a lot, so cover the whole thing.
7. Crumble the blue vein over the pizza, distributing in small pieces. If you’re a fan, feel free to use more.
8. With a teaspoon, dollop some basil pesto around in a stylish fashion.
9. Put the pizza in the oven (with baking paper) on your pre-heated tray/pizza stone. Cook for 15 minutes or so, until the base is cooked and the cheese is melted and golden.