“I love puff pastry. Of course you can put any vegetables you want on this. Courgettes are good sliced into thin rings or strips or both. Asparagus spears, wild or chestnut mushrooms, butternut squash peeled and shaved into strips, broccoli either tenderstem or otherwise, fennel, celeriac… whatever you have in season around you.”
– Uyen Luu, food writer and cook, London
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
One sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry (or roll out 250g home made puff to approx 0.5cm thickness)
125g cream cheese
3 shallots, finely sliced
1 small red onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli or chilli flakes, finely chopped
1 pouch of Trotter Gear
20g butter
A handful of saw tooth, Thai basil or regular basil
Seasonal vegetables, which could include:
Courgettes, sliced into thin rings or strips (or both)
Asparagus spears
Mushrooms, wild or chestnut
Butternut squash, peeled and shaved into strips
METHOD
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the puff pastry into the centre.
Using a butter knife, spread the cream cheese evenly over the pastry. Finely slice one of the cloves of garlic and scatter it with the seasonal veg, red onion, shallots and chilli evenly across the pastry sheet. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the Trotter Gear from the packet and cut it in half. Distribute one half as nuggets of cold Trotter Gear across the surface of the pizza. Place the other half into a small saucepan and set aside. Bake the pizza in the oven for 30 mins.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining Trotter Gear and simmer gently, to make a gravy.
In another pan melt the butter with the second garlic clove, crushed. When you remove the pizza from the oven paint the garlic butter over the surface with a pastry brush. Drizzle over with the gravy, sprinkle with the herbs and serve immediately.