Isn’t she a beauty? We’re so excited about our new Alfa wood-burning pizza oven! Since this is the year of staying home and “doing-it-yourself,” it’s so nice to be able to make gourmet pizza from scratch.
It’s such a fun activity in and of itself, and of course the result is delicious! What better way to spend an evening in (as most of our evenings are these days…)? You get to be outside, creating with your near and dear.
The character, or style, of the pizza we make is Neapolitan. The secret to great Neapolitan pizza isn’t new, nor is it a secret at all … it’s all about the tradition and the dough. You can read about the tradition here. Now let’s talk about the dough!
There are 4 ingredients in our pizza dough:
- Water – The water is really good in the Adirondacks. If your water is chlorinated, use bottled water. Chlorinated water kills the bacteria that makes dough dough.
- Salt – Sea salt. We like a variety of sea salts, from M. Gilles Hervy Sel Gris to Amabito No Moshio (Seaweed Salt)
- LSC – Liquid Sourdough Culture (basically time, flour and water)
- Flour – Caputo 00 Pizza Flour or, in a pinch, organic stone ground and local
The sauce is simple: a 35oz can of Cento Organic San Marzano tomatoes. Loose the basil leaf, run through a food mill with a course plate and add sugar and salt to taste. Then use mozzarella torn by hand into small (marble-sized) pieces. Finally, launch into a wood oven fire at ~900 degrees for ~60 seconds.
We love to mix up toppings to keep things interesting every time we make pizzas. But one constant is basil from our own garden. Some of our other favorite toppings are mushrooms, red peppers and of course pepperoni. There are some great vegetarian ones too. Tell us what you like to put on your pizza!
