Ciabatta pizza

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After a gentle ten mile run by the river Thames after work, I was rather hungry. I decided on pizza, but tried making one myself for a change.

I took a large piece of plain ciabatta and halved it. For the toppings I started with a layer of grated emmental cheese. I seeded a vine tomato, chopped the outside into small pieces and added that on top. Then parma ham torn into smallish pieces and some pre-boiled baby mushrooms sliced in half. Finally a few green olives, and into the oven it went for about ten minutes. I drizzled some olive oil on top just before serving, and a dash of pepper.

I was pretty impressed by how the flavours complimented one another. With the fresh ingredients, I hope it was also fairly healthy. It was certainly less rich than pizzas one would eat in a restaurant, which is probably a good thing.

As it was one of the first warm days of spring, I chose a dry rosé to accompany the pizza. I find rosé quite under-rated as a wine, and in my experience it can offer very good quality for a reasonable price. This one was a 2006 Argentinian Malbec-Shiraz (13%) by the name of Misterio, and it was very refreshing.