Pull Apart Pizza Appetizer

Different take on a regular pizza, made with store-bought puff pastry, perfect as a sharing appetizer or full on meal. Make sure to cut all ingredients into tiny pieces, that way you will get more flavor in each bite.

• Two sheets of puff pastry
• 1 cup pizza sauce (from a jar or home made; I make mine by frying a small shallot with two minced cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, dried oregano and 1.5cup of passata, I cook it until sauce thickens and reduces to 1 cup)
• 0.5 cup finely chopped olives
• 100g finely chopped ham
• 150g finely grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese
• 300g mushrooms for mushroom paste
• small egg for egg washing

Mushroom paste sound a bit odd, but believe me, it's great. Use a food processor to grind them into tiny pieces and then cook them in a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt (medium heat). Continue cooking until all water evaporates and you are left with mushroom paste. Or, you can just chop mushrooms into small pieces and fry them until all water is removed.

Cut both pastry sheets into rough circles, reserve the leftover bits.

Spread pizza sauce, olives, ham and cheese onto the first pastry circle. Leave about 1cm border for an egg wash. Spread mushroom paste onto the second circle.

Break an egg and whisk it with one spoon of water, spread it around the pastry border with a pastry brush. Place the second pastry circle on top of the first one and seal the edges with your fingers. Use a glass to lightly score a circle in the middle and cut the pastry into 16 even pieces. Pick each piece and twist it twice in the same direction. Egg wash the whole pie and bake at 200°C (400°F) for 22-25 min.

Use leftover filling and pastry cut offs to create tiny pizzas and bake them in the oven at the same time.

Let it cool enough to handle and serve with ketchup squirted in the middle of the pie.