Pizza Oven Advice

Agreed they look fantastic for a first go.

Here’s a few tips I’ve learned over the years. Apologies if I’m repeating anything you already know.

‘Sauce’ for Neapolitan pizza is literally crushed tomatoes and salt. Olive oil if you’re feeling bougie.

The authentic way is to get a can of good ITALIAN San Marzanos (as above, La Fiammante or Casa Marrazzo) drain the liquid and crush the tomatoes in your fingers, add some salt to taste. You can also use a blender but draining them is the key to getting rid of the acidity and keeping that delicious sweetness you get.

The reason I say Italian is that whilst San Marzano is technically a variety, and you see them pop up in supermarkets in the UK, the flavour of the Italian ones is said to come from the volcanic soil and climate they get when grown in the region around Naples.

This is why the fired pizza with great ingredients shines over oven baked, because in the 60-90 secs it takes to cook, you’re retaining all of the flavours of those great ingredients.

For the dough, I’d highly recommend a proving tray. I got mine from Ooni as the commercial ones are massive. The Ooni one is a great size for about 6 dough balls. They have a lid and deep sides so no faffing with clingfilm or towels sticking to your resting dough balls (or worse them getting a skin from proving uncovered).

My technique (following something like the Ooni dough calculator) is to mix all the ingredients for a few mins and leave un-kneaded for about 20 mins so the flour soaks up all the water. Then knead for 5-7 mins and leave to prove at room temp for about 12 hours. Ball them up about 6 hours before you intend to use them and let them prove as balls in the proving tray at room temp.

If you ball them longer than about 6 hours before using, I’d put them in the fridge. The issue with leaving them out at room temp too long is the balls can over-prove, get full of bubbles and tear easily when stretching. The problem with proving them in the fridge is they need a lot of time after to get up to room temp because cold dough is also difficult to work with.

I bake all the time so have a KitchenAid, if you have space/budget then they make dough an absolute breeze. They also look good in your kitchen and are basically bulletproof. As my friend found out they’re also powerful enough to walk themselves off a counter taking the sockets and wall tiles with them…

If you have the time, sourdough is worth the effort for the flavour. Learning to properly stretch the base; press it out from the middle, don’t press the crust at all and for goodness sake don’t use a rolling pin (unless you’re deliberately doing NY style).

Good mozzarella is also a treat. For me, a sourdough base, top-quality San Marzanos, DOP Mozzarella, basil and very good olive oil cooked quickly in a fired oven is about as good as food gets.

This video is a masterclass:

Pizza is one of the foods we seem to be able to get very good examples of pretty much nationwide.

Franco Manca was my introduction to Neapolitan pizza at their Broadway Market location in Hackney. In about 2014 I think. Great to see them all over the place now. I feel like it’s the 2020s Pizza Express where you can just get reliably good pizza every time.

Every town/city seems to have a very good pizza place these days.

Still makes me smile when you see the trip advisor reviews on that style of pizza from people saying ‘Soggy pizza, undercooked… avoid!!!’ 😂

Our first introduction to supposedly original American Pizza was When we went to New York. I booked us on a day tour (A slice of Brooklyn pizza tour) Part of the tour we were booked into two pizza places. The one in the picture was supposedly a famous place called Grimaldi, in Dumbo just under the Brooklyn Bridge. You cannot book a table so have to queue for a table. Our tour was able to book so we walked in past the people queuing, we were not very popular. The second pizza stop was at L&B Spumoni gardens in Bensonhurst. Must admit the Pizzas were good. The big black truck with the blacked out windows was our tour bus. We looked like the mafia turning up.

Amazed how bad pizza can be in UK. IMO cardinal requirements are: wood fired oven, double zero flour, buffalo mozzarella and San Marzano tomato sauce. Luckily, we’ve got a pukka pizzeria who also deliver. I always go for the Margarita and never disappointed.