Pizza and Wine, Heaton Mersey.

When the cat's away the mice will play. In this case, the cat (Mrs Bacon) was looking after a poorly relative and she's not quite as obsessed with pizza as me. So the fat mouse was sat in a sunny field on his own, in Heaton Mersey chomping on a 12" Chorizo pizza. So how did I get here? (I was asking myself that).
Well, following my regular complaints about the state of proper pizza in Manchester, a few people mentioned Pizza and Wine in the suburb of Heaton Mersey. I've not been there for years, there's no real reason for me to go there, but I will travel in my obsessive quest for good pizza.

It's just an average looking takeaway, (there are no seats, its tiny). Then you spy the amazing looking French wine list on the wall and you realise that you're somewhere a little bit different from the norm.
Good pizza is really a very simple thing. A thin base, decent quality ingredients, not too much sauce, just the right amount, not overloading it. I like an unhealthy amount of cheese on mine. Often, I've noticed local places are really stingy with the cheese. It needs to be all over, not in tiny blobs. It's the right balance of everything working in harmony with each other. You just know it when you taste it that it's just right.  (Also of course cooking it for precisely the right amount of time as below).

I personally don't want to see a mountain of bloody green leaves on my pizza either, leave them off please, they don't work! (A little tiny bit of basil I'll accept). And obviously there's a list of things that never belong on a pizza, starting with pineapple. If you like Hawaiian pizza then we can never be friends.
As I took that first bite sat in a field (like a vagrant, although I didn't have my Special Brew with me on this occasion). I just knew it was just bloody right. That juiciness of the cheese against the smoky salty meat and the savoury tomato sauce. Yes! They've made the effort to get everything spot on, it just takes a bit of effort and care. As we all know, you can find out anything you need to know about everything by just googling it for gods sake! There's no excuse, so how come so many places in Manchester can get pizza so wrong? Laziness and lack of wanting to do things properly I reckon. Simplicity isn't always so hard to get right, it takes effort.

They got it right here. The base wasn't as springy and bubbly at the edges (like say Honest Crust) but it was thin, flat and more solid although still crispy in style, more like the ones we've had in Europe. £9 very well spent. It's one of the best pizzas I've had in Greater Manchester. I wish they'd open a little place up in town, (how about the Arndale?), they'd make a mint.  If I had the money, I'd do it myself.

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