NDuja and Burrata Wood Fired Pizza

Two of my favourite ingredients for a Pizza, NDuja and Burrata, NDuja is a wonderfully fiery spreadable salami from Calabria that’s loaded with chillies, this works in harmony with Burrata a mozarella style soft cheese with an oozy creamy centre and a few fresh leaves of basil, cooked for a couple of minutes in the wood fired oven that I built myself, this is a perfect combination of creaminess and spice, I’ll let the pictures do the talking if it’s ok with you?

Maddocks Farm new wood fired oven!

My lovely friends at Maddocks Farm have been hankering after a wood fired oven for a while now, and I can finally reveal their beautiful new oven.

I’m very proud of my own oven, as you have probably gathered, but this one is truly stunning, and the brickwork is wonderful, it’s a Pompeii style oven, and will prove wonderful to cook in. Their builder Luke, certainly has done a great job. I think there could be a lot of interest in this, so he might have a new sideline.

I’m looking forward to when it get’s fired in anger to see how it performs, and to having some great pizza where I’m not slaving in front of a hot oven for a change. Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos with me for all to see.

Pizza with a bit of character

The great thing about getting your guests involved with the food at a party is that it’s such fun everyone having a go, and learning about food, and there is no better food for this than pizza. Everyone can make up their own bases, kids love this, and with a selection of  traditional and unusual toppings, some great combinations can be had. This was my brother in law’s favourite, with tuna, olives, sweetcorn, and ahem pineapple. He loved it so all was good. The pizza’s cooked in my wood oven have real character, but you can cook these in an indoor oven too with the oven at maximum temperature and still get great results.

The oven managed to hit the highest I’ve ever taken it, as you can see 550 deg C, on the base of the oven, super hot! You can see on the base of the pizza the lovely mix of polenta, semolina and flour that I use to dust the peel, and stop the dough sticking, a few little burnt bits, but these all add to the taste of these rustic pizza.

I also included my personal favourite, loaded with a couple of different types of salami, and drizzled with chilli oil.  Keep experimenting, enjoy and have fun!

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First Pizza in Wood Fired Oven of the Alfresco season

It’s been a lovely start to the spring season, the weather has been unseasonably warm, so it was about time I fired the wood fired oven up for a quick couple of pizzas for my family.

It’s always difficult after you haven’t fired an oven in anger for a while as it builds up moisture over the winter and everything takes a while longer to heat up.

Still it was a good start to the year with a couple of pepperoni pizzas, but the light fades so quickly, so caught the first pizza in near dark conditions.

I’m looking forward to a great season of eating outdoors, hope you are too.