I had a few friends over for a sleepover last night (yes, I know, very teenage of me!) and lay out this (relatively) humble spread of easy finger-food*. I like to call it a Welcome Table, which is essentially the same as a buffet, but more homely and somewhat less seventies. Besides, I'm not one for cocktail sticks or vol-au-vents; I keep catering rustic and simple, not least because I'm unashamed to say that I haven't the patience for precise presentation.
*Ok, so perhaps I set my guests a challenge in serving them puff-pastry pizza to devour sans forchette. Nevertheless, it was a delicious addition to the Welcome Table and the pastry base was pleasantly light (which is the relief one needs when faced with a hefty loaf of warm garlic bread alongside, see above).
I made a simple tomato sauce for the pizza, starting by gently frying a red onion and a chopped garlic clove in a glug of olive oil. I then added two tins of tomatoes and brought the mixture to the boil, before simmering on a low heat. You keep on cooking the sauce until there is no more watery juice sitting on the surface, but before anything sticks or black flecks start to appear (!). What you are doing is letting the water in the tomatoes steam off to leave a richer, thicker, more concentrated sauce, which can be spread onto a pizza base or stirred into hot pasta. For the pizza above, I rolled out a packet of puff pastry (supermarkets make it so well that we never feel the need to) onto a baking tray, spreading the sauce and strewing ripped-up chunks of mozzarella on top of this, before baking the whole thing on 220 C/Gas 7 until the cheese was bubbling and the flaky crusts were lightly browned.
The pizza tasted just as good grilled for lunch today, and we eggy-fried leftover slices of garlic bread for a simple supper with a pungeant twist. Therein lies the bonus of the Welcome Table- fill it in abundance and it'll keep you filled up the following day!
No comments:
Post a Comment