Apr 24 2008
High Class Takeaway
A miserable Monday night, and a desire for something better than takeaway.
I’d been skeptical about this recipe, I will admit. Whilst Nigella claims they are okay (or at least superior to shop-bought pizza bases,) I am not a huge fan of shop-bought naan bread. Equally, the foodie in me is ashamed to admit to finding the texture of bottled or tinned mushrooms (something of a staple in mountainous Italy) to be a bit weird…I have been known to be fazed by them. On the other hand, I do really like fontina cheese…mmmm, trainers!
Despite my misgivings, I have to say this was a resounding sucess. To do these again I’d need to choose a different tomato base, as the bruschetta mix I chose from Waitrose had an over-abundance of olive slices for Dougal’s liking (spot on for me!) but otherwise I’d repeat them in a flash. Very, very Express (at most, seven mins easy prep followed by five mins in the oven) and yummy to boot.
I was going to argue that it wasn’t a cheap meal- you’d probably need to buy all the ingredients (naans, tomato topping, mushroom antipasti, fontina cheese)- but per portion it probably still came in at less than extortionate, utterly not worth it Dominos/Pizza Hut/name-a-chain pizza. And it looked cool too.
all sounds fantastic, though I doubt you can but fontina cheese round here.
You have done a lot of cooking since i last looked
hmmm… do you think a naan would make a good base for an impromptu ken-style pizza. I’m not really into mushroom antipasti, not least because Dunbar probably doesn’t stock it… but other bits could go on, I suppose…. And where do you find Fontina cheese (Waitrose, no doubt!)
K
Indeed, the fontina was from Waitrose and even then only because I absolutely scoured the shelves.
I was surprised by how much I liked the mushrooms, having been prepared to find them vile. Ours were Waitrose own, but they also sold Sacla ones (the pesto people) which you might well get in the co-op…as previously noted it seems to have raised its game a bit.
I reckon the naans would be pretty versatile to additions. Plain tomato, heat it up, then lashings of rocket, parma ham and parmesan? Yum Yum Yum!
yup sounds yummy…. when you say plain tomato, do you mean… just tomato, like unadorned, or did you mean tom sauce?
well, the recipe calls for ‘chopped sieved tomato’ (out of a jar) which is in fact a product you can buy in waitrose, believe it or not. But by that reckoning i reckon chopped toms out of a tin would be fine, maybe with a little of the watery stuff poured out of the tin to maximise pulpiness.
I suspect ours’ll be toms, cheddar, mushrooms n basil, though rocket might slip in there too.
xxx
sounds fab!
Rocket is the same as american Arugula, right?
I can’t abide by mushrooms out of a can. Here they are just like slimy snail bottoms or something. Gach. Your ‘zas look amazing tho!
Yeah, I think rocket is arugula. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Second only to lamb’s lettuce in my list of favourite salads (although mache and romaine lettuce are worthy of a mention).
Have I ever mentioned I have an unhealthy (healthy!) appetite for salad?