Method

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Dust a large baking tray with cake flour. Remove the puff pastry from the fridge and gently roll it out on a work surface dusted with flour. Do not roll the pastry flat; the idea is not to roll it thinner, but just to get it even. Coat your hands with extra flour, lift the pastry and place it carefully on top of the baking tray. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese, olives, salami slices and feta cheese over the pastry and bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until done and golden brown. Use a teaspoon and place spoonfuls of the pesto on top of the pizza. Cut into squares and serve with basil leaves.

Tips for working with puff pastry
• There is no way of defrosting pastry quickly – be patient, plan ahead and leave the pastry to defrost overnight in the fridge.
• If a recipe instructs you to roll out the pastry, it means that you only have to roll the pastry even. Puff pastry is thin enough and only needs to be rolled out gently.
• Always coat your rolling pin and work surface with flour.
• If the pastry tears, sprinkle over a lot of flour and roll the two pieces together.
• The colder the pastry is kept, the better the end result. So keep the pastry in the fridge until just before you are going to use it.
• If possible, return the pastry to the fridge until just before baking it.

Extract from One-two-three on the table, by Bernice van der Merwe, Human and Rousseau. Photograph by Berna Coetzee.

Bernice has also recently opened a brand-new restaurant in Cape Town’s CBD, called My Basaar.