Lazy Lockdown Lunching: Pesto Pizza & Pear, Hazelnut & Spinach Salad

Endlessly feeding and clearing up can get the creativity stumped, and with deliveries and shopping up in the air I've been ending up with a few surprise meals that are thrown together with what we have.

This was one of the wins, from last weekend in the sunshine, and takes a small amount of effort to make a happy table full that all mine loved.

Using ready made puff keeps this down to the very bare minimal of fuss, but if you want to make a pastry base or pizza dough as an upgrade, please use instead.

Likewise the salad is adaptable and works with other fruit, nuts of cheese depending on what you have on stash.

CHEESE & TOMATO PESTO PIZZA PUFF

1 roll ready puff pastry (as above do use short or homemade dough)

2 tomatoes sliced

100g hard cheese

200g fresh pesto

basil leaves

Nothing more than an assembly. Roll out the pastry onto a greased baking tray, heating the oven to 190.

Spread the pesto thickly along the bottom, then layer the tomatoes and cheese, dotting the remains pesto over the tomatoes and any more cheese to top.

Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown and the cheese has melted through.

Scatter a few basil leaves over.

Serve with salad and eat immediately.  

PEAR, STILTON, HAZELNUT, SPINACH & ROCKET SALAD

2 pears sliced and cored

200g stilton crumbled

100g hazelnuts

Large handful baby spinach leaves

200g rocket (or other green leaves)

Mustard dressing 

(Makes enough to keep the jam jar for another day)

1 tbsp Dijon Mustard

1tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

Add contents to a jam jar, screw the lid on tightly and shake hard until a glossy, creamy consistency. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Toast the hazelnuts for 3 minutes on a baking tray at 180. Be careful to watch they don't catch. Once ready, a dark brown with skins flaking, use a tea towel to dust off the skin and chop roughly.

Wash leaves and add to a large salad bowl, arrange the pears over the top and crumble over the stilton. Sprinkling the warm nuts on the top and then the dressing before folding it delicately to combine and serve.