The house came with a 650kg “Portugese” pizza oven which was apparelyly placed insitu with a crane. Personally, I would have bought one of those stainless gas jobs however we have it so we use it and love it. Takes 2 hours to get up to heat, no biggie since we only use it when we have six or eight people here for a meal. Not worth firing up just for the Missus and me. A helluva lot of fun though. We have a large outdoor talble adjacent to the oven so it’s all part of the entertainment for the meal seeing the pizzas flying in and out of the oven. The oven get to over 500c and the pizzas need no more than 90 seconds to be perfect (thin crust type pizzas) which always amazes our visitors. Even better, when our sons are here they take it over and do a much better job than me.
All in all, for us the pizza oven is really worth having.
I agree with @tompoland a pizza oven is absolutely worth it. I have a 12” Ooni gas jobbie that works really well and would recommend it. If you have a gas hob though, you can get very good results just with your regular oven and a pizza steel.
These two were done in my oven. The trick is to cook your pizzas on a piece of 6-8mm steel cut to the size of your oven, or a thick cast-iron saute pan. I think mine cost about £20 from a steel fabricator I found online. Heat it up for a good 5-10 minutes directly on the hottest burner on your gas hob, and you should be able to get it up to at least 300-400’C.
Once it’s at temperature I put the base directly on the steel and cook it for about a minute, then add sauce and toppings, and put it under a hot grill for another couple of minutes or so until cooked, each pizza taking around 4-5 minutes to cook. It works well, and gives almost as good results as with my Ooni. I struggle to get the cheese melted in the same way though, you can see it’s melted but not browned on the oven pizza. It’s almost there, but it is a lot more work than using a dedicated pizza oven.
Here’re a couple done on the Ooni, which is literally a two-minute cook and very straightforward. You can see the improved cheese browning and better colouration on the crust.
The difference between an oven/hob pizza and one done on the Ooni is less about finished product and more about consistency and workflow. To my mind it probably shares some similarity with using a manual espresso machine such as a Robot and a machine like an LM. One is fire and forget, the other needs a little more work to get there, you can make great coffee on either of them.
I do similar but have a Silverwood baking tray made for an Aga, it’s extra thick aluminium that I put in the oven at max temp to preheat. I make the pizza on a thin baking tray that I use as a peel and just slide from the prep tray to the hot one. I take the preheated one out the oven briefly as it makes it easier to transfer.
My advice is don’t buy anything that isn’t Ooni or Rocbox. I own the original pellet Ooni, however I will eventually get round to buying a Gozney Rocbox to cook with gas as pellets add nothing but extra work. If you can justify it, buy the Gozney Dome which is endgame and then never buy another outdoor oven.
Either way I’d say treat this like home espresso aka a hobby, it took me a good while improve technique and consistently turn out decent pizzas. I’ve burnt a lot of pizzas at 500c and had a lot of bases stick and become disasters!
I really rate this book for dough recipes, the overnight proved doughs are much easier to handle and stretch
The weather over here isn’t always condusive to outside pizza ovens so ooni have come up with this…for indoor and outdoor use and from all the reviews I’ve seen on YouTube it seems as good as gas or wood fired pizza ovens, and just as quick to cook a pizza (90 seconds to 2 minutes). Only thing missing is the taste of smoke, oh and you have to be satisfied with 12 inches.
That’s exactly the one I’m going to get also. I forgot to say you get the added benefit of sort of two fuel rails on the 16. It’s like a right angle rail so the flame is on two sides.
Also whilst I wouldn’t recommend indoor use, you also haven’t got to worry about a chimney on the Koda 16.
I also noticed a big difference in using decent ingredients (similar to coffee!) and currently use Mutti tomatoes and Caputo flour although we have used others.
Also you need a ‘peel’ - the perforated metal ooni is pricey but works well for us.
Then (similar to coffee!) there’s more accessories to buy - lazer thermometers etc
Yeah another vote for Caputo flour! The Pizzeria flour is great for the dough and the semola for shaping the pizza and getting it into the oven. Also far easier to clean up than regular flour.
Fave tomatoes are either La Fiammante or Casa Marrazzo.
Another +1 to gas. Game changer getting the gas conversion for my Ooni.
And yes it’s great making your own dough but the frozen ones that come in box of 2 in supermarkets are very good for emergency or for just a couple of pizzas and with good ingredients on top and cooked well it’s hard to tell vs hand made. Still hand make for big pizza parties.
I would like to upgrade to get a better shape and less issues with wind.
Enjoy Dutchy! Don’t forget to show us the results 🤤
(ps Captuo is now available on Ocado - in the past I’ve had to drive round the country or split 25kg bags & as above La Fiammante San Marzano tomato’s are 👌)
Thanks - i must admit the oven is a bit of a dream to use. I watched a couple of very quick YouTube videos before using it and very pleased withthe results.
Full disclosure, I didn’t make the dough or sauce myself - I used this for the base (probably works out quite expensive at £2.40 each compared with making your own but very impressed with it and would happily use again - takes a lot of tge effort out of it):
@Cuprajake Yeah, I’ve got the app and also got some recioes with the oven too thanks.
I also purchased the 16 inch paddle from ebay. Got an infared thermometer and cover coming from Amazon today. Also ordered a pizza stone cleaning brush off Amazon Refuse to pay the Ooni prices for these things
I never make sauce as I don’t see that it’s worth the effort. You can make a big batch of your own dough and freeze it in portions, they defrost in a few hours so you don’t need much notice to get them out if you suddenly feel like having pizza one evening.
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.
Yeah sorry I wasn’t saying those two brands of tomatoes are the only ones to use. I’m sure there are others. I think Mutti do a San Marzano grown in the Campania region.
Casa Marrazzo are my faves but La Fiammante are also great, less expensive and more easily obtainable.
Ernie1 I meant Mutti’s pizza sauces rather than making one from tinned toms. Sure , and I want to try, making one from special tomatoes is amazing but sometimes with family and kids I just need to open a tin and go and Mutti are a good option for that.
Pizza Hut has to be the worst of the worst when it comes to pizza. I always smile when I recall a story my mate told me when he was taking his team out for lunch and suggested they go to Franco Manca. One of his team objected on the grounds that she was “a pizza snob” and only ate Pizza Hut pizza.
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!!!’ 😂
dutchy101 While I loved Pizza Hut as a kid, it put me off any pizza that wasn’t Neapolitan up until recently.
After stumbling across really good Roman pizza during a trip to Rome and then visiting the bakery of ex-celebrity chef Bonci (he’s on Netflix in an episode of Chef’s Table:Pizza), I rarely make or buy Neapolitan pizza these days (although I still love it - particularly a white base with Nduja blobbed on top 🤤).
The Roman’s are fanatical about toppings preferably only using local seasonal ingredients. The base should have a lovely thin crisp/chewy crust while the rest of the base is very airy and light. Not like the stodge/greasefest of Pizza Hut 🤮
It’s part of the reason I want to update my oven to gas so I have more controllability to keep a lower temperature instead of the raging furnace with the pellets!
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.
It’s a steep learning curve and it’s easy to lose track of what’s really important. The most important part in my view is kneading the dough well. I still hand knead but may get a Kitchenaid if I can convince my other half..
Forget about poolish, biga and so on . All you need is flour, water and instant yeast. I would recommend the PizzApp for determining the quantities.
Today’s pizza with 70 percent hydration, 6hrs at room temperature, nothing fancy..
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