My home built pizza oven (never do that, just buy one) is going to get fired up this evening. Few folks coming round (me missus and her friends love Strictly and its the kick off evening). The outdoor oven unfortunately means that me and my friends need to be outside tending to the cooking - we most likely will miss the show.
I’m about to get the bread dough underway for the pizzas - more like little flat breads. These will be slathered with garlic butter, the next with same plus grated cheese, the next also with carmelised onion, the next also with anchovies. Food of the gods.
But I think we need more so I’ve also got some small trout fillets which I plan to nail to a short plank and rest that upright inside the oven. Might work - marinade probably essential.
Then there’s the potatoes in foil up against the fire or maybe with bacon and fennel in small enamel dishes. Maybe.
And probably sausage on skewers - somehow arranged inside the oven.
Could be chaos and disaster.
Anyone got other ideas?
Roll with it.
But I thought pizza always had tomato paste of some sort, and smeared on the bread first.
I saw a mention of the late, great and missed Anthony Bourdain on another thread. I seem to recall him going to Marseille to find it the pizza truck capital of France, maybe Europe. I’m looking for a recipe he might have done…
Yes, most often but you also get white pizzas - no tomato. Use very white cheeses like ricotta and lots of allium family veg. And this evening I’m going to be focused on garlic and butter. I’m not knocking the trad tomato based pizza though.
I am a fan of thinly sliced eggplant/aubergine on white pizza as well as cherry tomatoes grilled in EVO separately (so as not to make the crust soggy).
Another favorite around here is a white pizza with thinly sliced pears and then topped with arugula when it’s ready to serve.
Also try pineapple on skewers, diced and added to a white pizza with multiple types of mushrooms.
Sounds like a wonderful evening!
Genuis - dessert pizza ! I need to dig out caramel sauce…
My daughter makes pizza using those flat unleaven bread things as a base (similar to wraps but bigger) that you buy in the supermarket saves a lot of messing about.
Personally I just buy them hot and ready to eat from places like Crust or Pinocchio’s - they are both at the end of my street, better but more expensive than Domino’s or Pizza Hut. (Not that I have had a pizza for over a year)
Come to think of it, my daughter and youngest son both worked at Pizza Hut while they were still at school. She was a “Manager” for a fair while too.
Very creative to have your own Pizza oven.
Yesterday proved to be the easiest firing up of the oven yet. Sometimes it is a fickle beast - the fire takes then dies, then with more kindling takes again, then peters out. Last night, no problem, straight to full flame. Then I used great chunks of oak I had scavenged from tree felling nearby two years ago. The heat was properly intense.
Once the hot, hot oven had made a few small pizzas I tried cooking trout fillets. I nailed a half dozen small fillets to a short plank and rested that against the inside wall of the oven. Barely 6-7 minutes later - perfectly cooked fish. Worked well with the baked potatoes that had been tucked down the other side for a couple of hours.
Then we sat watching the thunder storm, warmed by the oven.