Love your work guys. Check out the article on this amazing contraption here.

I noticed that there’s a new episode of Better Homes and Gardens (Ep 32) which features Jason doing the business again - this time with an even easier approach. Looks like a kitset - retailing at AU$900. The whole approach looked pretty no-fuss and quick, but then with other materials: Hebel and adhesive etc etc I bet you’re talking $1,200+ Will keep and eye open on whether more details appear. The original show was definitely inspiration for my oven…

Trying a butterfly lamb roast in the oven tonight.

Just like the perfect storm, perfect home-made pizza requires just the right set of variables to align. I haven’t got there yet - but one day I will… maybe the answer’s simple: a trip to Italy is needed.

Anyway, I’ve been playing with a list and plan to refine this over the next few weeks.

1. Go Woodfired!
Surprise surprise. I tried for 10 years with a conventional oven only to learn that a clay or brick oven at twice that temperature is the only way to go. Do this one thing and you will get a 500% improvement in your pizza.

2. Fresh is the best
Kinda speaks for itself - dough, sauce, cheese, toppings - buy fresh, prepare just before use. Make your dough and sauce from scratch - it’s easy and the pay-off is huge. Both sauce and rolled out bases will freeze (my sauce recipe is great for pasta too), but they are never as good as fresh. I know I said the sauce freezes well before, its fine, but just, well not perfect - and that’s what we’re after here.

3. Topping sympathy
Simple one this, don’t overdo it. If you’re making thin crust pizza (the only option imho) you don’t need handsfull of mozzarella and buckets of toppings - go easy.

4. Heat - Touch, Feel & Breathe
My hypothesis is that there are 3 kinds of heat happening in a pizza oven. Now these probably won’t stand up to any scrutiny by a Physics teacher but here’s my commonsense thinking…

Firstly conductive heat - the dough in contact with the oven;
secondly ambient heat the air temp;
thirdly the radiant heat created by the wood fire itself (embers and flames).

In an open Pizza Oven (ie with no door) you need a well soaked (fully heated up) oven - each will be different - for mine it’s about an hour, hour and a half; you need it hot hot hot, and you need to keep a fire going - with flames. You need to get these 3 heat types working well together for perfect pizza and I’ve found this tricky. Trial and error is the only way.

5. Damp Dough
I like my dough slighty wet to the touch. You can flour it up to stop it sticking. My unproven theory on this apart from the fact that it’s easier to roll is that it creates more steam, more quickly when it hits the floor of the searing oven. This creates that lovely crispy outside and soft inside.

6. Post Oven Trimmings
Can add a lot - a sprinkle of freshly ripped basil or rocket, prosciutto, a twist of pepper. If you can resist diving straight in, which is tough - let me tell you, a lot of value can be added at this point.

7. Scoff Immediately
Not one that troubles my household this one.
From table to hand to mouth within two minutes - the only way. It’s why for me delivery pizza - even gourmet thin crust, never lives up to expectations (apart from costing three times what it does at home).

That’s it for now - any feedback greatly appreciated, tell me what you think makes a perfect pizza - I want this list to get better!

My mate Mike from Perth has made the ultimate portable pizza oven. This one on a steel frame - that much even I can tell… I’m waiting for the full story.
Kitset or from scratch build? Who made the frame? How much did it cost? How does it cook? How long does it take to get to temp? What’s your favourite recipe? - Watch this space - Michael under duress to spill all! I feel Mark II is coming soon from me. Anyone else seen any portable pizza ovens out there?

Fascinating multi-faceted video from Aussie manufacturers DoughPro - would have any wannabee pizza restauranteur salivating…and really worth a watch for us mere amachewers.

There are some really interesting bits, and totally cringemaking stuff - sorry guys I’m a complete thin crust fan - this family pan pizza with a kilo of cheese doesn’t work for me.

Thanks for the video though.

Fresh, light, tasty - the attributes of a good tomato base. I’ve tried lots of recipes amongst them those from Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein.

Some use tinned tomatoes that are strained after preparation, others call for bottled strained tomatoes or passata.

I  think fresh tomatoes are simply the best. And preparing them is really quite easy. Do this in bulk and it’s very cost effective. I buy fresh tomatoes when they are on special (last weekend they were $1.99 a kilo at My local Harris Farm) then prepare a batch of sauce. It’s delicious for pizza base, or pasta sauce and it freezes well.

So for about 6 portions of sauce (each of which does 2 or 3 pizzas, or a nice bolognaise or pasta sauce)…

5 kilos of fresh tomatoes
olive oil - 10 tablespoons - or a fullsone few glugs
a large bulb of garlic (yes about a dozen cloves), finely chopped
a large bunch of fresh oregano
6-8 fresh basil leaves (I love basil but find it very strong - it will overpower the oregano imho)
Lots of salt and pepper
(drop quantities proportionally for smaller quantities)

Method:
The first step is to bring a big pan of salted hot water to boil.
Blanch the tommys for a few minutes until you see the skins splitting then drop into a sink of cold water.
The skins will be easy to remove when cool.
Then hold the tommy inside your hand and poke your fingertips into the seed cells. Squeeze out the juice and seeds as best you can. This is basically seeds and water - you just want the flesh.
Start the oil and drop in garlic for a minute. Once this has started to brown, drop in the tommy flesh and bring to the boil.
This mix will soften up after a while. I use a potato masher to pulp it up.
Season with salt and pepper and finely chop and add the oregano.
Reduce the whole mix down and intensify the flavour.
I tend to lightly zizz the mix using a soup liquidiser to break up the lumpy bits (you can leave them but they tend to get super hot and hard to deal with when you’re scarfing down a piping hot pizza slice - causing major cheese slides or burnt lips!)
Allow to cool slightly, then use immediately or freeze (it will keep for a few days in the fridge too).

Next, the base!

Lighting the fire
Kindling is best, nothing thicker than an inch or so. I criss-cross the timber with space underneath into which I sequentially loosely jam lit newspaper until the timber has caught. It smokes like buggery for about 15 minutes and then calms down. Takes about an hour to get to the right temp. About half a bag does the trick for a few pizzas.

A few watch-outs as you learn to judge the heat of the oven:
- undercook the base by not waiting long enough for the oven to warm-up. Result: Burnt topping
- overcook the base by not allowing the heat to calm down enough: Result: Burnt dough
- get patchy burns by allowing the pizza too close to embers or live flame (most common).

All pretty obvious stuff really!

Also had a wonderfully constructed Thai Chicken number ready to take out, when a big clod of clay detached itself from the oven roof and dropped in unannounced, rendering the pizza into a sizzling mess. This was part of the clay I used to patch up the roof around the flue. Going to need to rethink the flue I think. Also need to fill up some additional cracks that appeared through the Vermiculite layer.

Recipes to follow.

Here’s the project in a minute - say no more.