Ooni 3

This is possibly my new favourite thing to the point where I probably love it more than my second born child. Seriously it is that good.

I am lucky enough to have some ace friends who bought it for me as an early birthday present given the sun has been shining and we are all spending a little more time at home at the moment. Also, I love pizza, especially home-cooked pizza.

Last year I attempted to turn my kettle barbecue into a pizza oven using some lava rock and a pizza stone, but alas with limited success. It wasn’t bad but as my much loved eldest said at the time, “It’s not quite as good a Fato a Manos is it Dad” (His favourite Brighton pizza joint). A tough but fair critic when it comes to wood-fired pizza. Ultimately it was hot but not hot enough and there was a lack of raw fire.

So you can imagine my excitement when this beautifully engineered pizza oven arrived at my door. Easy to assemble, light and portable I had heard rumours of how good these things were. They get up to over 500c and fast, in under 15 minutes. All from a couple of handfuls of wood pellets.

So that night, it had a dry run to season it ready for the weekend.

Pizza dough proofing (There is a great app from Ooni for the recipe you want and how much time you have) it was just a matter of counting down the hours until tea time.

With all the toppings laid out next to me on the table, I started making each pizza on the well-dusted pizza peel, sliding them in and shutting the door.

Now one thing to note here is that this gets hot and cooks fast. Really fast.
Within 30 seconds I was giving the pizza a turn, another 30 seconds and it was done.

This wasn’t the best pizza dough I have ever made, it didn’t have a well-developed flavour as I didn’t allow long enough for the proofing, but was, by a country mile with some extra distance for good measure, the best homemade pizza I’ve ever cooked.

So this weekend we are having pizza again but I will also be making some Naan.

Watch this space, this won’t be the last you hear of it.