So it’s Friday evening.  Home from a long day at work and the lure of the simple, quick and potentially TV friendly supper is getting stronger.  What’s a girl to do?  Well, there are several possibilities but today, the answer is pizza!

It’s on days like this when I’m really glad the freezer holds an emergency pizza.  But it’s not one of those branded, stuffed crust or topped with fancy ingredients type pizza, it’s a supermarket, budget, plain cheese and tomato pizza.

The beaty of such a treasure secreted away in the freezer is that it has the potential to be any flavour you want.  And really it is only the time taken to choose and prepare your topping that causes any delay as the whole thing can be put in to the oven still frozen.

The downside of using a basic type of pizza is that there simply isn’t enough cheese, so whatever topping I load on to the pizza, I will always end up with a good layer of cheese on top.  Usually cheddar as I love the salty tang but anything in the fridge will do: a little left over Boursin adds a garlic hit, mozzarella is of course extremely traditional but dots of blue cheese over the surface give the whole thing a different twist.

You can choose your own range of additions to the base.  It’s a really good way of using up odds and ends of left overs in the fridge: a little cold cooked chicken, a slice or two of salami or even a cold breakfast sausage cut up into satisfying chunks.  And vegetables.  Lots of vegetables.  For me, a good layer of sliced mushrooms, some onion, sweetcorn kernels (from the freezer or tinned), a sprinkling of petit pois and some wedges of sweet pepper.  Oh, and the whole thing finished off with a good drizzle of balsamic before placing in the oven.  Set the timer, then relax with a well-topped pizza and a glass of chilled rosé.