9 minute Healthy Pitta Pizza

Pizza is invariably a fun food, a fast food, and a finger food, thus perfect for children.  The only challenge is the lack of nutrients and the excess of baddies like lots of salt, sugar and additives in those pizzas that we can pick from a supermarket shelf.   Now, while I love to feel like a cheffy chef, stirring up a rich tomato pizza sauce, and spinning a thin dough above my head, before sliding it into my own wood fired (I can dream) oven,  it’s simply not practical for a quick lunch, or a midweek dinner where time consumption comes a close second to food consumption.

This recipe, including both creation and cooking, takes about 9 minutes all in, which is less time that it takes to open a box and cook the above mentioned supermarket version (made by someone wearing blue rubber gloves working in a factory).

Not only does the pitta base cook quickly, but by choosing a whole wheat one, or one with added seeds and grains, like The Food Doctor version, you are making it a nutritious part of the meal and full of fibre, rather than just a tummy filler.   Using passata (or at a push tinned tomatoes) is a purer way to add a tomatoey tang, as most pizza sauces add sugar, salt or both. The garlic oil, oregano and black pepper elevate this simple combination to a proper pizza status.  You can top with whatever you like, we like to squeeze in some folate rich sweetcorn, and top with melting mozzarella.

Bear in mind that this is a great way to introduce new flavours to small people, an olive here, an artichoke there, even some raw grated courgette may get past even the fussiest of foodies.

Ingredients – makes two little pizzas 

One wholemeal pitta (we use The Food Doctor ones, most supermarkets have them)

2 tablespoons of passata

2 tablespoons shredded mozzarella

2 tablespoons sweetcorn

Pinch of oregano

Grind of black pepper

Drizzle of garlic infused oil

Method 

Heat your oven to 200 degrees C.

Slide a knife around the edge of the pitta and separate the two sides, so that you have two flat bases.  Pop these in the hot oven for 2 minutes to crisp up a little.

Remove the bases, and top them ‘open side up’.  First a table spoon of passata on each base, spread evenly.  Then a pinch of oregano on each, followed by the toppings, sweetcorn in our case, followed by the mozarella, divided between each base.  A good grind of black pepper on each, and a drizzle of garlic infused oil round the edge of the bases finishes this beautifully.

Pop these back into the oven, on a rack is good to keep the bottom crisp, for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is golden and melted.