Courgette, goat’s cheese and parma ham pizzas

Tortillas are one of my favourite quick food accessories. They are used here as a base under gently spiced courgettes, goat's cheese and pine nuts. This simple mix yields such a delicate, light and tasty pizza all you will want to say is encore, encore, encore! Also, while I would not label this dish as particularly child-friendly, my daughter who is not a courgette fan absolutely adores it. A winner all round.

The key here is to get nicely flavoured goat's cheese because baking cheese tends to reduce the strength of its taste. Try to avoid using an industrial mild log or fresh cheese if you can and go for a matured cheese. If you don't like goat's cheese, gorgonzola will also work very well in this recipe.

If you are big eater or have one in your family, serve this as a starter or adjust the doses to make 6 pizzas for 4.

INGREDIENTS

4 soft flour tortillas
3 medium sized courgettes
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 cloves garlic
100g well-flavoured goat's cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 slices of parma harm
Salt and pepper

Busy: 10 min. Total prep time: 25 min

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C.

Trim the courgettes on both ends and peel them lengthways, leaving some skin between each peeled section so at to obtain vertical dark green/light green stripes. The skin can sometimes be bitter and overpowering, so removing some of it balances out the taste of the courgette and, as an added bonus, makes the slices look really pretty.

Slice the courgettes into very thin disks, and mix them with the olive oil, finely chopped garlic, chili and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl.

Line your oven tray with parchment paper and dispose two tortillas on it or more if they fit. Wet thoroughly with a paper towel or a brush the edges of the tortillas. This will prevent them from burning when cooking in the oven.

Lay the courgette slices on the tortillas in concentric circles, working from the edges toward the centre and leaving as little of the edge exposed as possible. Allow the slices to slightly overlap. If you don't use up all the slices, leftover ones can be stored raw or gently fried in a pan with a bit of garlic and eaten for lunch the next day.

Crumble the goat's cheese and sprinkle evenly on the tortillas, along with the pine nuts.

Bake in the oven for 15 mins or until the cheese starts to brown. Check your oven regularly because these pizzas are so thin they cook (and burn!) very rapidly.

Once cooked, place a slice of parma ham arranged in the shape of a pretty flower at the centre of each tortilla and serve. Absolutely, heavenly yummy.

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25 June 2010