28/12/2017
How to make the worlds best, kick-ass pizza.
To a panel beater/spray painter repairing and ding in a car is easy or as we say in Australia “a piece of piss” (here on referred to as “P.O.P”). But if you have ever tried to save yourself a few bucks and do it yourself you will find out after many painstaking hours of labor that your home repair looks like, to be blunt, sh*te!!
The same goes for pizza. And although the basics are fairly simple to make kick-ass pizza you need to follow these steps.
#1- Buy a wood fire oven. Even an poorly prepared pizza cooked in a wood fire oven is going to taste better. Pizza NEEDS to be cooked at high temperature for a short time. I’m talking 1 to 2 minutes. A normal household oven just will not do. But there is a cheat I’ll talk about later.
#2- Any old wood just will not cut it in this case. The pizza is not just baked but smoked as well so you definitely do not want to use pine. You want a good hardwood like oak. It has to be dried for at least a year preferably longer. So a year or two before you start to cook your pizza go to the mountains, cut yourself down a big old oak tree and start chopping it into manageable pieces about the size of your forearm. Then build yourself a wood-shed and stack the firewood inside. Too easy... or should I say, P.O.P!
#3- So you’ve got your oven and firewood sorted now you can start to prepare your dough. The most important ingredient is the flour. And although you can make pizza with any kind of flour if you want to make professional Napoli style, mind-blowing, life-changing pizza you need a good Italian “00” flour like Caputo Pizzeria. It’s a lot more expensive but it’s worth it.
Every pizzeria will have its own closely guarded, secret dough recipe. I’m no different and will not be telling you mine but I will give you the technique. Do an internet search for a Napoli style pizza dough recipe. Most recipes consist of flour, water, yeast and salt. My recipe differs from the rest by beginning with a kind of cheats yeast starter.
Mix your warm water and dried yeast to get the yeast activated. Then add salt a about 2/3 of the flour and whisk it well. Leave it until it start to bubble and increase in size (about 30min to an hour). Then start adding the remaining flour and stir with a wooden spoon until you can’t stir any more then use your hands. Once all the flour is in knead for 15 to 20min or until dough is smooth and no lumps remaining. Cover and leave to prove until doubled in size. Anywhere from an hour to 4 hours depending on the weather. Then cut up and roll into individual 220-240gr pizza balls. Cover and put your n fridge for two days.
Take them out and hour to 4 hours (depending on weather) before cooking. Simple....er....P.O.P
#4- The toppings are equally or perhaps more important than the base. A typical Napoli margherita pizza sauce is just canned tomato and salt, that’s it but they should be whole peeled, Italian tomatoes. Each pizzeria has there own preference so experiment with different ones. The cheese must be fresh mozzarella not the hard yellow stuff!!! And basil picked fresh from your garden.
#5 Depends on the oven but brick ovens need a slow warm up gradually increasing the heat for about 3 or 4 hours until the ideal temperature is reached. (There is no shortcut unless you want to crack your oven)
#6- Once the oven is ready stretch out your first pizza. This is not easily explained but something that must be learned through experience. Too thin and the base will tear and the sauce and cheese will spill out on your oven floor. Too thick and it may not cook all the way through. Put on your toppings and slide the pizza onto your pizza peel. Put peel into oven a with a quick backwards jerk, pull out the peel hopefully leaving your pizza sitting neatly on the brick oven floor.
#7- The spin. Unlike fast food pizza chains, you don’t just set a timer and walk away. Wood fire pizza is hands on act. Using a small peel once the pizza has cooked enough from the bottom to be rigid enough to handle, slide the peel under and spin the pizza around to cook the sides and top evenly. Don’t forget to check the bottom so as not to burn it. When it looks cooked pull it out and cut it up.
Now do that a few thousand times to get your technique down and you’ll be a self certified pizzaiolo!! Congratulations, P.O.P👍
Oh yeah, and if you want to try it in a home kitchen it won’t be anywhere near as good but you can still get a pizza far better than any fast food pizza chain, this is what you do;
Heat a fry pan on a medium to high heat(with no oil) sprinkle a little bit of salt over the pan (trust me on the salt). Stretch out your base and put it into the hot pan. While the bottom is cooking quickly add your toppings. Using a spatula lift the edge of the pizza to check the bottom. When the bottom is toasty brown put the pizza under the grill to cook the top. When it looks done, it’s is ready to eat. P.O.P👍🍕enjoy!!
