Pizza tart

This is a really easy meal that gives children a bit of choice over what they have for tea. My kids have decided they don’t really like pizza that much (!) so for this meal I swapped a doughy pizza base for a much lighter puff pastry one. This isn’t just a meal for kids, though, it gets two thumbs up from me too!

We made this after school on a Friday evening. Everyone was tired and snappy (yep, including me) but we all came together to make this meal and everyone was happy by the time I dished up.

If you have time then leave the pastry out of the fridge for 10-15 minutes before you unroll it. This makes it much less likely to break.

The ingredients I’ve given below are what we used to make this meal but feel free to use whatever you like – the great thing about this recipe is that kids can add their favourite toppings to make a meal they’ll love, just put a few different bowls of toppings out and let them make their own tea 😊. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Sauce: pizza topping, tomato puree, soft cheese, pesto, hummus.

Vegetable and fruit toppings: sweetcorn, sliced tomatoes, peppers, pineapple (because pineapple DOES go on pizza tart!), mushrooms, onions, spinach, cooked root veg (eg sweet potato or butternut squash).

Protein toppings: cooked chicken, pepperoni, sausage meat, mozzarella, ham (if using thinly sliced ham tuck it under the cheese to stop it overcooking, or just add it for the last few minutes if cooking).

Serve with a salad for extra goodness, although you should be able to get a couple of portions of vegetables into this meal without the kids making too much fuss.

Ingredients

Serves 4 adults

• 1 X 320g ready-made puff pastry sheet
• 1 small (198g) tin sweetcorn
• 1/2 small (230g) tin pineapple chunks, cut in half
• 4 or 5  cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1 ball mozzarella, cut into slices
• 4 tsp pesto
• 8 tsp pizza topping
• 50g cheddar, grated

Method

1. Heat your oven to 180°C.
2. Cut the pastry into four quarters with a knife or clean scissors, keeping them on the greaseproof paper that they are wrapped in. Place them on two baking trays.
3. With a blunt knife score a line about 2cm in from the edges of each pastry square, being careful not to cut right through to the paper.
4. Prepare whatever toppings you are using and dish them into separate bowls.
5. Let your children choose their sauce – dish a couple of tsp of it onto the pastry and let them spread it out with the back of a spoon until it reaches the line that you marked out with the knife.
   

   

   
6. Let them pick whatever toppings they want to add, then cover with grated cheese.
7. Cook for 20 minutes.