Most people (mainly women) will recognize that feeling of oh-lordy-me at the end of a week when the grocery shopping just didn’t get done when it was supposed to.

It’s not that the pantry is empty, exactly. It’s just that what’s in there hasn’t been bought as an ensemble or, to put it in plain English, for any expressed purpose. What to do? Call for pizza? Again?

Here’s what Mrs J improvised out of her pantry tonight.

Find:

• An egg.
• A roll of ready made frozen puff pastry.
• And old-ish bit of parmesan cheese.
• A jar of italian pickled red and yellow peppers (sweet, but with a bit of zing).
• A leftover piece of mozzarella.
• An almost empty bag of pine nuts.
• Some lardons (or bacon, cut in little pieces).

Fry the lardons until browned. Throw in the pine nuts to get a bit of roasting action on them as well. (You can of course go through the process of separately roasting the nuts in a dry pan, but Mrs J didn’t feel that was necessary. At least not this time.)

Chop pickled peppers and add to lardons and pine nuts in the pan. Let any excess liquid steam off.

Chop mozzarella and grate parmesan. Add lardons and peppers to cheeses. Season with black pepper and mix.

Roll out the thawed puff pastry. Use any smallish bowl on hand to cut circles. Transfer half of the cut to a baking tray, lined with a baking sheet. Or roll out and cut directly on the baking sheet, if you’re really clever.

Add a small mound of the filling on each round piece of dough. Try to leave a little bit at the edge all around.

Sit the remaining rounds of dough on top of each mound and squeeze the edges. Treat each one to an eggy wash.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 200°C. And you should get something like this.

Serve immediately. A leafy green salad goes well with it.

Add a glass of nice red wine (if you’re into that sort of thing) and voilà, it’s a party!