Puff Pastry Pizza

What do you make to take to a friend's house when your job is to provide a main dish and the weather is so hot, you don't want to spend any time in the kitchen? Puff pastry pizza. This is the easiest 'pizza' to make and allows you to spend a minimal amount of time in the oven. I started by roasting two peppers in the morning (when it was slightly cooler outside). I used a red and orange pepper. As far as I'm concerned, green peppers should never be used a they're just not sweet enough and even with the caramelisation process of roasting, they still don't work.

I roasted these for about 20 minutes, turning once. About an hour before I was due to go out, I unrolled the puff pastry. Now, usually I go for the cheaper option and but the block of puff pastry and roll it out myself but it was just way too hot yesterday to expend any excess energy. I placed the puff pastry on two oiled baking sheets and scored around the edge. This is to encourage the outer edge to puff up. I covered one sheet in homemade tomato sauce and the other with pesto (from a jar). I always use the Sacla organic pesto as that's the only one which is vegetarian.

I then topped both sheets with sliced baby tomatoes, mushrooms and roasted peppers. Having forgotten to pick up mozarella at the the supermarket in the morning, I topped it all off with grated cheddar cheese.

I then baked it for approx 15 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade. The mistake I made was not to prick the base first as the middle section puffed up during cooking so I had to put a fork in the base when I took it out to let the steam out. Apart from that, the dinner party guests seemed to enjoy my offering. It was so warm on Thursday night that we had drinks on the patio of my friend's house and then dinner on the lawn. This is really turning out to be a warm summer (although it is raining as I write this).