Stellar Recipe: Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Pastry Puff

This is the first recipe I am going to share with you all on this blog. So I thought I should provide my all time favourite quick dish. This meal is simple to cook, healthy, inexpensive and delicious. I have tried many variations of this dish and have settled on these few favourite ingredients, spices and herbs. You can also play around with the ingredients as much as you want to get a taste which is perfect for you and a dish that is completely unique. It is also vegetarian which is a plus as you can guarantee healthy vegetables are essential addition to most vegetarian dishes.

I have been vegetarian for about four years and have never enjoyed food more. There really is a wealth of flavours out there that can get overlooked of you solely rely on meat for taste. Recently, I decided to make as much of my food as I could from scratch and started off small by buying a couple of different spice jars per week. I have quite a good collection now and I'm actually rather proud of myself for achieving this small goal.

Now onto the recipe;

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Bell peppers (I used 2 red and 1 orange), sliced
• 1 red onion, Diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 radish, sliced 
• 1 packet of buffalo mozzarella, thickly chopped
• 1 pre-rolled puff pastry sheet
• 1 teaspoon of dried chillies
• 1 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
• 1 teaspoon of dried paprika
• crushed black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons of green pesto

METHOD

• Pre-heat the oven to 180oC 
• On a baking tray, roll out the puff pastry sheet and add the tomato puree.
• Use the back of a spoon to evenly spread the puree and make sure to leave an inch-wide boarder on the pastry. This lets it rise.
• Once puree is spread, use the green pesto to add small dollop's around the pastry.
• Sprinkle the crushed garlic onto the pastry.
• Start to arrange the peppers, onion, radish and tomato's onto the pastry.
• Add the mozzarella and the spices/herbs.
• Top off with a quick drizzle of good quality olive oil.

• Put baking tray into the oven and cook for approx 15 minutes.

• Keep an eye on the pastry throughout

• Once cooked, slice into quarters and serve with side salad. Enjoy.