I’ve had very little chance to make pizzas this month, mainly because we’ve really wanted to use the garden oven and the weather’s been horrible. It hasn’t stopped us completely, we did a batch in the regular oven that turned out ok, and this week we fired up ‘Bertha’ but all that rain has taken its toll – the normal 2 hours heat didn’t get the deck hot enough which caused a bit of sticking when turning. No disasters, just not crispy bases. I think I’ll look into replacing the cracked terracotta tiles.
Went out for a meal last night to a great family-run Italian in Horsforth, Leeds called Café Marinetti. Proper stuff, the Amarone is highly recommended if you like waking up with a thick head (it was lovely though!) and as usual I got chatting to the owner who gave me a few tips and tricks with his pizza making. No recipe unfortunately but they use a different flour and even after many years of pizza making, they still try different flours. That amazed me!
Their garlic / tomato topping is to die for. It’s a stunning taste, not a blast of garlic like we tend to do at home but much more subtle – yet still plenty of it. He even mentioned a bit of finely chopped parsley and that’s something I’ve never tried before, it’s always been basil or oregano if I ever use any herbs in the sauce (often I leave it plain).
New terracotta / fire brick tiles I think… need to get that base cooking at the same speed as the top.
