Tortillas (makes 8)
• 200g plain white or wholemeal flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tbsp butter, melted (or ideally lard)
• 100ml hot water

Note before we start: if you’re going to use all the tortillas as pizza bases, you don’t need to be as precious about kneading or resting the dough, as it’s not a big deal if you don’t end up with beautiful foldable tortillas.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the melted butter and water to make a soft but not sticky dough (you may not need all the water), bring together and then remove from the bowl and knead on a well-floured work surface for five minutes until the dough is smooth (don’t skimp on the kneading!).

Cover the dough and rest for at least 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 fairly equal portions, roll each slice into a ball, then flatten out a bit. Roll one out as thin as you can make it – really thin, almost transparent thin. You might find it easier to work with someone else here, one person rolling and the other cooking, as you can’t stack the tortillas as you roll them out or they’ll stick together. If you’re working on your own, it can be most efficient to roll them out as the previous one is cooking.

Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Pick a tortilla up by rolling it over a rolling pin and laying it into the pan. Cook for 30 seconds until brown spots appear underneath and it bubbles up a bit (push any big bubbles down), then flip and cook for the same length of time on the other side.

As you remove them from the pan, stack them in a plastic food bag until you serve them to keep them pliable.

These can be re-heated in the microwave for 10 – 20 seconds, or in a warm oven for a couple of minutes. They also freeze well, stacked in their plastic bag between sheets of baking paper.

For pizza

Use this base as you would a regular pizza base. Place the tortilla on a sheet of baking paper then mix together a tablespoon of tomato puree with dried oregano as a quick sauce. Spread that over the base, leaving a 2cm border, and follow up with mozzarella cheese, then whatever toppings you fancy/have lying around in the fridge: halved and stoned olives, thinly sliced peppers, a couple of anchovies, sliced mushrooms, wilted spinach, more cheese (goat’s, grated cheddar or feta all good), sliced sausage…etc etc etc.

Heat an oven as hot as you can (that bit’s important!) with a baking tray inside, slide the baking sheet onto the tray when it’s as hot as it will get and bake for 10-15 minutes until all melty, crisp and browned.