End of summer, the veggies come flying in.
Tomatoes, peppers, green beans.
There’s no end. Thankfully, Welsh parents are more outdoorsy than we give them credit. So, with a more diverse crop of vegetables to plow through, it’s only natural that we start the chutney talk. Chutney, to me, is a very broad world, mainly due to all that sugar and vinegar making it more or less a pot of candied, greens.
But some candied greens loom larger than others. Just ask my grandmother.
Faced with a pile of marrows at work and with no idea what to do, I called the one person that I though could (but maybe never would) help me. My grandmother, the undisputed queen of the Aberystwyth chutney world.
Routinely cleaning up at any and all local agricultural shows, my grandmother’s chutneys are officially ‘award winning’, as she’d say. Luckily, one such award winner just happened to be a cheeky little marrow and apricot number. Perfect.
Of course, chutney doesn’t necessarily translate straight to pizza, but it wasn’t far off. With some neglected German salami about and mature cheddar on offer, a dollop of chutney is all that was needed to bring the two together on a pizza. In my head, it would be a white pizza, rolled thin, slathered in butter and baked, seasoned with a little salt, pepper and rosemary, for a cracker like base. On the cooked base then would go cheddar, salami and finally, dollops of Chutney.
Unfortunately, offering a pizza cold doesn’t really fly, neither with Instagramers or restaurateurs. This then lead to the ‘hot’ Cheeseboard pizza, a marrow chutney base, topped with cheddar, salami and seasoned before baking.
Either way you want it, below you’ll find the toppings and prep list for the pizza:
For the chutney
Please note, these measurements are entirely made up. Award winning chutneys wouldn’t be award winning if you just gave away the recipe, and so I only ever received the ingredients and not the measurements from my grandmother. Whether this was her way keeping a secret, or just of implying that I should know how to make a chutney by now, I’ll never know.
For now though, here are the ingredients grafted onto a surprisingly accommodating marrow chutney recipe by Kilner jars. This should fill one 2 liter jar.
Peel, seed and dice your marrows
Remember that the size of the dice here is what you’ll be slathering on your sarnies. This means that lack of effort now will come back to haunt you later on, so put the effort in!
1.6kg marrow
Salt the marrow liberally, cover with cling film and refrigerate overnight
This will draw out the moisture from the marrow, preventing you from making a soggy marrow chutney.
The next day, rinse and drain the marrow through a colander/sieve with cold running water
Best test I could come up with was to rinse until they no longer tasted salty…not that they taste very nice raw anyway.
Chop all other fruit and vegetable to a fine dice
Again, the size of the dice is the size you’ll be eating, so no skimping on the slicing!
- 1 large apple peeled and cored
- 4 onions/shallots
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 300g dried apricots
- 1 garlic clove
Add chopped veg to large pan with sugar, vinegar and spices
- Chopped fruit and vegetables
- 375ml malt vinegar (or whichever vinegar you have in hand/prefer)
- 400g damurerea sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp mustard seed
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp turmeric
Heat mixture over a low heat for 2-3 hours until it reduces and thickens
Again, I’m no chutney expert, but I suspect you could cook it longer/increase the sugar concentration, etc if you want a denser, more jam like chutney. All I know is this was a very nice chutney and so I stand wholeheartedly by my grandmother’s ingredient choice (despite the mystery measurements).
For the pizza
Open dough ball on floured surface
If baking hot
Spread with layer of chutney and top with cheddar and salami
- Ladle of chutney
- handful of extra strong mature cheddar
- salami sliced into strips (or bresaola if you’re feeling fancy…and heavy on cash)
Season well and bake at oven’s highest temp on pizza stone (4-10 mins)
- pinch sea salt
- pinch cracked black pepper
- tsp dry rosemary or tbsp fresh rosemary ideally
If topping cold
Spread with layer of melted butter and season
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- pinch sea salt
- pinch cracked black pepper
- tsp dry rosemary or tbsp fresh rosemary ideally
Bake at oven’s highest temp on pizza stone (4-10 mins)
Finish with cheddar, sliced meats and dollops of chutney.
- Dollops of chutney, no more than a half teaspoon at a time
- handful of extra strong mature cheddar, broken into coarse lumps
- salami sliced into strips (or bresaola)
Update / Feedback
Finally after a week of service, here are a few points to remember.
- Don’t roll the ‘cold’ base too thin, very small margin for error i.e. any thinner patches will burn through and ruin half your crust before it’s baked
- Keep toppings dense, as ‘packets of flavour’. Crumble cheese instead of slicing, slice the meat (to disperse it more), use coarse salt and cracked pepper. Fresh rosemary is also a winner, elevating the overall look of the pizza.
- In contrast, the chutney’s the one thing that isn’t needed in large concentrations. It needs to be the underlying flavour that all the others play against, cutting through the sweetness for that ‘ooooooh’ moment. Possible to use it as a base, bake it then top with cold ingredients (but it’s a bit of a cop out, worst or best of both worlds?)
- Because individual topping flavours are lost as meat and cheese melt together, the hot pizza suffers by being too generic. As a result, you get an OK pizza, nothing mind blowing (*cough* like the cold one *cough*).
