Pizza a la Bond and Jones

Last Wednesday I was invited to dinner with Bond and Jones.  Jones has been a workmate of mine for the last 8 weeks, and although the nature of the dayjob means I am now off to pastures new, I will be staying in touch with Jones.  Not least because she can turn out an amazingly good homemade pizza.  Bond is her fiance, and it was lovely to meet him after hearing so much about him.

I will be asking for the recipe and posting it on here in due course.  Even better for the tall tales of provenance, I believe the recipe is actually from Jones' mother.

It involves handmade dough, which is briefly cooked in the oven before toppings are added.  Bond and Jones assures me this gives a crispier finish, although this could also be down to the special pizza pan it was cooked in... I will know once I have tried to bake it in the absence of a special pan.

I helped out with assembling the topping.  We put on tomatoes, pepperoni, basil, feta and cheddar, then baked it.

We ate it with Wairau Cove Sauvignon Blanc which I have already written about- I'm pleased to say that it met with the approval of the hostess and host.

The verdict? 8/10.  I need the extra 2 points for when I start playing around with topping combos.  It came out of the oven crisp (as promised), but the base retained some chewy stodginess (in a great way, believe me).  The toppings were good, and the way the cheddar made a browned crust over the softened feta was quite something.  The feta also stopped the cheddar/meat fat fest from becoming too overpowering.  I don't think it took much longer to do than a packaged pizza, and assuming a well-stocked store cupboard, it would make a great store cupboard meal.  I'll update on my own attempts at this one!