Use-it-up Pizza

Sometimes a dish made to use up odds and ends can turn out to be so scrummy that you want to make it again and again. That's what happened with this pizza, so I'm sharing the recipe here and, because it used up all sorts of bits and pieces, I'm joining in with this month's Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Camilla at Fab Food 4 All and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours The only thing I needed to buy was the mozzarella, the rest was dreamed up from assembling three past-their-best tomatoes, half a punnet of mushrooms, the last bit of a batch of pesto and a  dried up stump of parmesan on the kitchen worktop and thinking "What shall I do with this?"

Using pesto in place of a tomato sauce worked brilliantly, I'll be trying many more variations on this!

Recipe:
1 x 30cm  uncooked pizza base, home made or bought. I use half of the basic bread machine recipe
3 tbs pesto - I used traditional basil and pine nut, but any pesto, bought or home made would work
3 small tomatoes
a few - about 75g - mushrooms
as much finely grated Parmesan as you can muster up. I got about 3 tbs from a dried up stump that looked as if it would yield nothing
1 ball of mozzarella
olive oil
salt flakes
coarsely ground black pepper
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp crushed chilli flakes
½ tsp dried oregano

While the pizza dough is proving, chop  the tomatoes roughly and drizzle with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a few flakes of salt. Stir and leave for a while so the juices start to run out.
Slice the mushrooms and fry with a tiny bit of oil, just to stop them burning, until the steam stops coming out of them and all the surplus water is driven off. Lift out onto absorbent paper to cool.

Heat the oven to 200 C (or as directed in the instructions for your pizza base)

Spread the pizza base with pesto, taking it close to the edges. Scatter the chopped tomato over, spooning it out of the liquid that has run out, then drizzle over some of the liquid but stop if it starts to look sloppy. Scatter with salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Next arrange the slices of mushroom evenly over the tip, then sprinkle the Parmesan over. Tear the mozzarella into chunks about  1cm across and tuck evenly over the pizza. Drizzle the edges  with olive oil and bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden at the edges and bubbling on top.