One evening a couple of weeks ago, we were fancying pizza. But, I wanted a really quite specific combination of ingredients that none of the pizzas in our local Budgens were offering. So, DIY was the solution! Well, semi DIY. It was a Wednesday night and we weren’t really feeling the homemade dough option so we picked up a couple of ready-made bases with the intention of making them into something a bit more special.

I am currently going through an intense pesto phase so we picked up some green pesto, goats cheese and stuffed olives to act as the main stars of the show. We then added various bits and bobs from the fridge that were going off. Pizzas are a great way to use up the items laying forgotten in your fridge!

The bases are pre-cooked so we were able to start assembling our ingredients straightaway. Don’t they look appetising? (…..)

We obviously started with tomato paste, just a standard tube, nothing fancy here.

I then added a layer of PESTO to ensure the green goodness would be present in every single bite. Winner!

Ben then informed me he didn’t actually want pesto which I initially found pretty hard to come to terms with until I realised it would mean more for me. Fabulous. He decided to go the crazy-hot route and spread a liberal amount of hot salsa on top of his tomato paste. This is another reason why homemade pizzas are the best – you don’t have to settle for a pizza flavour you both only kinnnddaaa like, everyone can have their favourite!

Skipping forward approximately half an hour because the process of pizza making has been photographed many times, this is what emerged from the oven! Uh, amazing!

I had a layer of tomato paste and pesto, topped with cherry tomatoes, green olives, red pepper, Quorn chicken pieces and a liberal sprinkling of  goats cheese. This flavour combination is a real keeper! I wouldn’t normally go for a veggie topping (very much a pepperoni girl, or of course, Padana) but this was really flavourful and every bite was different which was quite exciting. It was also VERY filling and I was only able to eat half!  I had the leftovers for lunch the next day and the pizza was just as delicious cold.

Ben had hot sauce as a base with a combination of jalapeno peppers, Quorn chicken pieces, olives, tomatoes and peppers. Apparently this was also a winning combo which is saying something as he is quite the connoisseur when it comes to vegetarian pizza toppings. We’ll definately be using these pizza bases again; they are super cheap (£1.50 for two at the most?) and while obviously not as delicious as homemade dough, a strong contender for a quick weeknight dinner!