Feel like staying in with a takeaway and DVD? KATHERINE MACALISTER finds a perfect pit-stop.

As you held that wishbone in your fingers and closed your eyes at Christmas, what did you ask for? When you cut your birthday cake and screamed, blew out your candles, or threw a coin down a wishing well, what was it your heart desired?

My fairy godmother has taken a long time to show up, but as soon as I discovered the new wood-burning oven pizza shack touring the villages of West Oxfordshire, bringing delicious, fresh pizza to your door, I realised that it’s never too late.

And I’m not talking your Stavros-style pizza/kebab or fried chicken style joint here. No, Rico’s Pizza Shack is in a league of its own. How Rico got such an enormous wood-burning pizza oven into his “shack” in the first place I will never know. But there it is, in its enormousness, flames blazing, and no mistaking its authenticity.

So on its first day of opening (Mondays are in Wootton) there I was sheltering under Rico’s roof flap waiting for my supper. Yes it was dark, yes it was raining, but did I care? Hell no. Did Mary and Joseph complain about the lack of an ensuite when offered the stable? Did Robbie Williams object to Gary Barlow’s new beard when asked to rejoin Take That? I don’t think so.

Besides, I was on a mission. Could Rico’s come up with the goods? Was he going to shatter my dreams and waste my wishes? I ordered the £7 diablo pizza (pepperoni and jalapenos) and the £8 garden pizza (mushrooms, sweet peppers, red onions and olives) from the menu of 11 choices, all of which are made on site, and waited.

Just six minutes later from creation to delivery, which you can watch in admiration for yourself, I raced home to discover the answer for myself. Of course it was a yes, You couldn’t come this far and not succeed, or lug that great wood burning oven all over the county not to produce an authentic pizza. And believe me Rico’s is the real thing. The pizzas themselves could be served in any good pizzeria.

You can pre-order Rico’s by phone and roar up to collect your pizza, pausing your DVD to rush down the road, if you live around Wootton, Stonesfield, Long Hanborough, Freeland or Combe. If not give it a go one night en route to or from work/school or home, because with a time frame of 5pm-9.30pm there’s no excuse. You know you want to.

But you may have to join the queue. Even on his first night, in the wind and rain, Rico had sold about 50 pizzas when I arrived at 8pm-ish. You read it here first! And let’s be honest, in terms of who wishes, wants to marry a prince anyway?

* Rico’s Pizza Shack call 07810 327414 or visit ricospizzashack.

com to find out when he’s in your area