angela boggiano's mascapone, prosciutto and rocket pizza and giacobazzi's cotechino al'Inglese

After the relative sloth of Saturday, today we're running at 1000 per cent:

• We go shopping;
• We deal with a mountain of washing and tidying;
• We complete last week's gardening extravaganza;
• We go to Palewell Park and whilst Ana runs around Richmond Park, me and Milo play netball.

All this in scorchio temperatures - can it really be summer already? Anyway, having completed stages 1-3, we're in need of some vital energy and further inspired by myveryfavouriteItalianissueofDelicious, we get experimental with the cover-recipe: mascapone, proscuitto and rocket pizza.

Now I've destroyed far too many pizza bases to bother making my own anymore, so we use ready-made ones, which also makes it quicker and easier for Milo to get involved with doing the toppings. We do one with olives and one without:

I have to say, they were pretty darn toothsome with the mascapone really giving them a unexpected freshness. Note to self though, remember to stick the tomatoes on the bottom rather than try balancing them on top.

With Monkey in bed post-cavort around the park, we have our third recipe from the May 2007 edition of Delicious this week! Do bear in mind when you look at this I had a selection of normal Yorkshire puddings in the freezer, but Ana somehow managed to buy a huge, all-Beef Dripping Yorkshire pudding, for 5p in Waitrose...

Again, like the spaghetti alla carrettiera, it's an old favourite and one I usually have when Ana's away. It's a lentil and garlicky sausage stew from the Hampsted Deli Giacobazzi's, and despite sounding quite heavy, it's pretty light but is packed with lots of flavour. You don't need to eat too much of it, which is just as well as it means Milo's got plenty for dinner tomorrow.

sources
mascapone, prosciutto and rocket pizza - angela boggiano, Delicious, May 2007, p102
cotechino al'Inglese - raffaele and renata giacobazzi, Delicious, May 2007, p56