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You can’t go wrong with a crowd-pleasing homemade pizza

Your family and friends will love you for an easy puff pastry pizza night.

And if they don’t…

You need to find new family and friends! Lol.

  • SERVES: 4
  • PREP TIME: 5 mins
  • COOK TIME:  25 mins
  • DIFFICULTY: easy

Easy puff pastry pizza night

The key to any great dish but especially homemade pizza.

Are quality ingredients.

And the beauty of this meal is the freedom to make whatever delicious flavours you want.

You can go classic with a nice, simple Margherita pizza.

Or, if you were lucky, like me to use stunning, quality products from Harvey & Brockless.

Then you can be quite decadent with your toppings.

And why not?

We’re not making a Domino’s pizza.

And for a lot less money.

Your homemade pizza will be delivered to your table, super fresh, hot, and crispy.

And punching epic flavours.

Quality

I have a family that loves their food.

And they aren’t shy about telling me if the meal was up to par or where I could make improvements.

(yes, it can be exhausting listening to them sometimes).

But what I know they will never complain about, is the quality of food I use.

Over the past few years of my cooking journey.

I’ve paid more and more attention to the quality of the food I buy.

Where it comes from, how it was made, travelled, grown or bred, etc.

And how it ultimately tastes.

So, hands down, choosing my food carefully has improved my food immensely.

And sure, it’s not cheap to buy quality, especially meat.

But that’s when quality over quantity is key.

And when you buy good quality food, you start to realise the flavours are superior.

So, you don’t need so many ingredients to amp up a dish.

I’ve learnt this from cooking more and more Italian…

They know how to maximise flavours and not the cost.

Easy puff pastry pizza night

Easy puff pastry pizza night toppings

There’s no denying, in our family, it’s a must to have gooey cheese and some cured ham on a homemade pizza.

And for this fully-loaded pizza, I did a 2 cheese and dried ham topping with rocket and pine nuts.

It was a hit.

I added pieces of buffalo mozzarella (the Italians really know how to make mozzarella!).

And let that melt a little on top of my homemade tomato sauce.

(Tip: don’t over sauce your pizza base).

Then pulled out the puff pastry base and added the rest of my toppings.

I love a bit of rocket – get some greenery on there 😉

Add little pieces of a superb blue creamy cheese from South Wales, Perl Las.

(add a little more mozzarella! 😉

Then some incredible British dried ham

Which has a sweet, nutty flavour with a hint of smoke.

And comes from a farm in Surrey with a great sustainable approach to farming.

Puff pastry base

Some of you will know I have a pizza oven.

Or as I like to call it a wood oven because I don’t do that many pizzas in it.

The truth is, I find it all a bit of a faff.

This is why I love this easy puff pastry pizza.

And you’re right, if you’re thinking, it’s not the same as a thin Italian base pizza.

But it’s definitely a really great shortcut.

And a great Friday night ‘fake-away’ when you’re tired and want to chill at the end of a busy week.

But when or if you do feel like going the full pizza-making version.

Then check out my post on making pizza dough.

However, for this cheeky little pizza version, below is a brief method to get the puff pastry nice and crispy.

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Easy puff pastry pizza night

Course Main Course, Snack
Keyword fakeaway, homemade pizza, pizza
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Cost £ – ££

Ingredients

Pizza base

  • 1 sheet puff pastry (store-bought)
  • 300 g passata (or make homemade – see my post)
  • 300 g mozzarella, pull pieces off (use half on base, keep the other half to add to the topping)

Toppings

  • 4 slices of cured ham
  • 80 g creamy blue cheese
  • 50 g rocket
  • 25 g pine nuts
  • salt and pepper to season

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C
  • Heat the passata in a saucepan and simmer until thickened and reduced by half. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and leave to cool
  • Take the rectangular puff pastry sheet and score with a knife around the border, approx 1 cm from the edge. Don't cut through all the way. (When you bake it, it will rise to give your pizza base a crust).
  • Transfer the pastry sheets to lined baking trays and spread the tomato sauce over the base (don't over sauce) and place some torn pieces of mozzarella on it.
  • Place in oven and bake for 30 – 35 mins until the bases are golden and crisp.
  • Top with rocket leaves, slices of the dried ham, pieces of creamy blue cheese, mozzarella, and sprinkle some pine nuts.
  • Slices and serve.

Notes

If you’re looking for some lovely toppings, check out Harvey & Brockless