Anna’s Wood Fired Oven Blog

I have a lot of fun planning for the holiday meals, from the table decor to the food!  I get inspired walking through the farmer’s market, taking in the colors and the fresh smells of the produce, the fall harvest of pumpkins, pomegranates, persimmons…  Often, just as I sample a good cheese, a great meal takes shape in my mind and I can’t wait to share it with my family and friends.  I start mixing and pairing flavors in my imagination wondering if they are as good in reality.

Pumpkin pizza

For Thanksgiving this year I thought of offering small pumpkin pizzas as appetizers to start off the meal.  I did a test run in the wood fired oven and I loved the results, I hope you and your guests will too.

After making the pumpkin appetizer pizzas, I had extra dough and wanted to try something our customers Elisa and Jay Arne of Penn Valley, CA mentioned in an email to me:  their children garnished a pizza with Nutella, among other ingredients, as dessert. And the way life is, a few days later the chef at Urbano Pizza Bar had us taste a small pizza dessert with hazelnut spread.  Visions of chocolatey pizza lingered and I did my own version, couldn’t resist…

Pumpkin Pizza with Sage, Caramelized Onions and Ricotta Cheese

1/2 medium-small organic Kabocha squash or pumpkin, cut in 1″ cubes, about 2 cups

1 red onion, sliced

1 handful of fresh sage leaves

1/2  small basket of fresh ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 tablespoon red balsamic vinegar

Sea salt to taste

Optional:  prosciutto slices to garnish

Click here for Pizza Dough recipe  and How-to-video

Prepare your pizza dough, divide in small  3-ounce balls,  and let it rise.

Clean and cut the Kabocha squash or pumpkin in 1″ cubes.

Ahead of time:  I love the option of preparing garnishes ahead, so that I can spend more time with my guests.  Steam the cubed pumpkin for 10 minutes until soft.  Add salt to taste.  Add two tablespoons of olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon red balsamic vinegar mixing well, mashing the cubes a little bit with the fork, and set aside.  In a skillet slowly saute the sliced onion with a tablespoon of olive oil until slightly browned.  Salt to taste. Set aside.

At the oven:If you prefer to stay by the oven and bake everything in it, then use a cast iron skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the cubed pumpkin, salt to taste. Place on the hot oven floor, taking care to keep it closer to the opening for a cooler spot to avoid burning.  Place some foil on top of skillet if needed.  Bake until soft and then mash the cubes a bit with a fork.  In another skillet slowly cook the sliced onion until it has slightly browned.  Salt to taste.

Baking pumpkin and onions in cast iron skillets

Flatten a pizza ball  with your hands and shape.  Place on wooden peel.  Brush surface with olive oil and garnish with pumpkin, ricotta cheese, and onion.  Lastly place 3 leaves of sage after having dipped them in olive oil.

Note:  Don’t get any food or oil spills on the wooden peel!  This will make your life difficult when you try to slide the pizza in the oven…  the pie might stick.

Slide the pizza in your oven, bake, and serve!  If you like prosciutto, then add a slice of it after the pizza is out of the oven.

Pumpkin pizza appetizer ready to be enjoyed...

Next, I made the dessert pizzas.  Same pizza dough recipe, same 3 ounce pizza balls, but garnishing first with a lovely plum jam, spread evenly over the pie.  Then a glob of hazelnut spread (like Nutella) in the middle, with strategically placed ricotta around it and two slices of fresh figs.  You want to keep the chocolate from “running” off the pie, so that’s where the ricotta comes in handy.  Do not bite into this pizza right away since the sugar in the ingredients will be super hot.  Wait for it to cool down!

Dessert pizza with hazelnut spread and plum jam

I posted a lot more photos of the whole process on our FaceBook page, check them out under the Pizza and the holidays album.  Isn’t it fun to have a wood fired oven?  I love showing it off during the holidays,  love the pleasantly surprised exclamations of my guests when they discover we cook the whole meal in the oven…

Here at Los Angeles Ovenworks we wish you a wonderful holiday season, one in which you will experiment, have fun, and bake good food.  Buon appetito!

Dessert pizza ingredients

It's pumpkin season...

Once you master the basics of pizza making you will most likely start the quest for the perfect flour.  It’s just the way it is.  New vistas open up beyond the realm of King Arthur’s Flour… and the chef in you heeds the call for new culinary adventures. Throughout the years of cooking in our wood fired oven we have tried a lot of really good flour, and we are so grateful that there are still mills out there making a great product.

Pizza dough ready to be formed into a pie

Here are some that stand out:

Presently, we buy our favorite flour from  CentralMilling.com  in Utah, a water-powered mill nestled by the Logan River and the Rocky Mountains.  The company also carries its own seeds (nothing is genetically modified here, thank you).  They have a long list of products for every taste and baking need… their Type “OO Normal” Flour is very close to the Italian Caputo Flour and is designed to take the high temperature of a pizza oven.  Did I mention that it is organic?  It comes to us fresh and fragrant (California is not that far) but keep in mind that the minimum order is 50 lbs. and the shipping costs are … high.  Is it worth it?  Yes!  But if you can only buy small bags, know that Central Milling also produces the Whole Food’s 365 Organic Unbleached All Purpose Flour.

Another great product is made in Naples:  Antimo Caputo Chef’s Flour,  the famous type “OO” flour from Italy. Particularly if you don’t want to store a 50 lbs bag, since you can find this product on Amazon.com or via some local stores in a convenient 2.2 lbs bag, (shipping cost will average $7.25).  This flour is a favorite among pizzaioli both in Italy and in the US because it is specifically created for high temperatures such as you get in a pizza oven.  Don’t try it in your regular gas oven, it won’t brown properly.  The low gluten content makes it ideal for a Neapolitan pizza and the pizza pies stretch nicely without breaking.  Note for those who like buying large quantities:  The  ”OO” Pizzeria Flour in 55 lbs (blue) bag is the same flour that is in the Antimo Caputo “OO” Chef’s Flour 2.2 lbs (red) bag.  Molinocaputo.it

We also like the Hudson Cream Flour, from a mill in Kansas — one of the last independent flour mills in the US — that has produced “short patent” flour  for over 100 years.  During the milling process their wheat is ground more times and sifted with finer-meshed sieves than usual.  We love the sweet fragrance of this “creamy” flour,  and I use it when baking bread and desserts.  Check them out at Hudsoncream.com, they do sell locally in many states.  They will send you 1-5 lbs for  a shipping cost of $7.75,  6-10 lbs for a shipping cost of $11.55, so you get an idea.

Don't try this at home. Eight pizzas at the same time.

We prefer flour that is organic, unbleached, and when making pizza, with a low gluten content for that nice stretch.  Would love to hear about what flour you like and why.  How does it perform in your wood fired oven?

Happy cooking and buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

A wonderful crust with fennel, mozzarella and fontina

We started the year stumbling upon a great pizza…  Peter wanted to try a new dough recipe and invited his buddy Chris over for a taste.  As it often happens, Chris brought a garnish to experiment with and we had one of our own (which actually was the extra stuffing that was left over from the ravioli Peter had made earlier).  Try them both and decide which one you like best.

The Dough

Is an easy variation of our Neapolitan Pizza Dough and it makes for a crispier pie that holds up nicely  to heavier garnishes.  The variation is this:  Add 1 cup of flour to the recipe, so 5 1/2 cups of flour instead of just 4 1/2 cups.

Fennel, Mozzarella, and Fontina Garnish

We used the dish Chris brought and made this white pizza… loved it!

3 heads of fennel, quartered

1 clove of garlic, sliced thin

1 cup of vermouth or white wine

1/4 stick of butter

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Put fennel, garlic, vermouth, and butter in a metal pan and place in the oven.  Once the butter is melted, take the pan out to baste the fennel, then back in the oven to bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until fennel is tender.  Let the dish cool.

Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with some of the baked fennel, sprinkling cut mozzarella and fontina cheeses on top.  Slide pizza in the wood fired oven, bake for one and one half minute, rotate, and finish baking.

Slide pizza out of the oven and before serving, add some finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese and optional, a little olive oil.

Potato,  Gruyere, and Truffle Butter Garnish

Boil 3 medium potatoes in salted water.

Discard the water and pass the boiled potatoes through a ricer while still hot or mash them well. Add 1 tablespoon of truffle butter and 1/3 cup shredded gruyere cheese to the mashed potatoes and stir until melted.

Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with mozzarella cheese cut into cubes and then add a little bit of this potato mixture.  Slide pizza in the wood fired oven that has been pre-heated to 650F  bake for about one and a half minute, rotate pizza and finish baking.  This is another “white” pizza (without tomato sauce) that we really, really loved.  Great as an appetizer.

Buon appetito!

A great grilled appetizer

Our friend Mike had his birthday party over the weekend and we brought one of our favorite appetizers. I like this recipe because it is fast and everyone just loves the wood fired flavor and look of this dish.

There will be times when you are not going to use your wood fired oven for a party in your house, because you just want to make something quick and delicious to bring to a friend’s home or a family gathering somewhere else.

In this case you don’t need to build up a lot of heat in the oven. I just wanted to quickly grill some vegetables, so Peter built a small fire while I prepared the marinating sauce and cut the vegies. In about 30 minutes, the fire was reduced to a nice bed of hot coals and I placed a grill over it.

Over the grill (with legs) I placed a metal tray with holes I got at William Sonoma (see photo below). It comes handy when you grill mushrooms, for example, because they all stay in one place and are easy to handle.

Preparing the grill

Making the coals

You can use any vegetables you like and/or have available. Onions and eggplants are particularly good.

3 or 4 small onions

2 medium zucchini

3 small Italian eggplants

1 green or red bell pepper

15 white mushrooms

Marinating Sauce

2 tbs fresh thyme leaves

1 tbs fresh sage, chopped

1 tbs dry oregano

3 tbs red balsamic vinegar

8 tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Cut the vegetables lengthwise, so it is easier to grill them. Set them aside. Mix the salt and the vinegar in a bowl, adding all the chopped up herbs. Then add the olive oil.

Place the grill with legs inside the oven on top of the bed of coals. Slide the metal tray with the vegetables on top of the grill. Check at intervals of 4-5 minutes or so, turning when done. Keep the metal door of the oven up against the arch so that it keeps the heat inside the oven, but still leaves the air in.

When the vegetables are done, pour the marinating sauce over them while still hot. Place in a nice plate, garnish, and you are ready to party!

Buon appetito!

It is so much fun to harvest in the garden early on a summer morning! Today I got lots of tomatoes and they look beautiful! Decided to combine my favorite comforting flavors: tomato-potato-bread crumbs. Try this in your wood fired oven or in your conventional oven (in this case just add 10-15 minutes to the cooking time).

tomato harvest

Pomodori al forno

6 medium tomatoes, ripe but firm

2 russet potatoes

1 cup of olive oil + 2 tablespoons

1/2 cup bread crumbs

2 teaspoons dry oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Cube the potatoes and boil them in salted water. When they are done, mashed the potatoes with a fork. Set aside.

With a sharp knife cut off the top of the tomato. Holding the tomato in the cup of one hand, gently scoop out the pulp, making sure not to tear the tomato. Keep the pulp and juice, you will use it later.

ready for the wood fired oven

Ok, so I am partial to making my own bread crumbs. This may be because I just can’t trow away good bread, so I always keep some handy in the fridge drawer, stored in a paper bag. Baguettes are the best for this sort of thing. Break the hardened bread in pieces and process in a food processor. The crumbs will not be uniform size and some will be a bit larger, which is good.

Place the bread crumbs in a bowl and add about 8 tablespoons of the tomato juice and pulp you set aside. Mix in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the 2 teaspoons of dry oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Then add the mashed potatoes and mix. Scoop this mixture into each tomato.

Place the tomatoes snugly either in two loaf pans or other metal pan. Add the olive oil so that it comes up about 1/2 inch. Baste the tomatoes with some of the olive oil.

Bake in a 300 degrees F oven for 20 minutes. Take out and baste the tomatoes with the olive oil in the pan. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes.

pomodoro al forno!

Mmmmh… so good with some aged goat cheese or pecorino!

Buon appetito.

As spring vegetables make their appearance here in California, I get excited about fennel. It is so versatile in the wood fired oven, with a lovely anise flavor that improves and makes more interesting a lot of dishes. It is also great on its own. (By the way, in ancient Greek fennel was called marathon, and some sources point to the fact that the area where the great battle of Marathon took place was once covered with fennel plants.)

Here’s a great recipe using fennel, or finocchio, as it is called in Italy.

Black Cod and Fennel al Forno

Serves 4

1 lb Black Cod filet, cleaned, leave the skin on one side

1/2 fennel bulb, sliced thin

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 handful of fresh or dry rosemary

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Mix the oil with the sliced fennel, olive oil and spices. Marinate the fish in this mix of oil and spices for 30 minutes.

Two ways you can cook this dish in a hot wood fired oven:

• Once the fire you built is down to coals and embers, scoop these towards the front of your oven and place a freestanding grill over the coals. Wait 5 minutes until the grill is hot, then place the marinated cod on it with the skin side down. Fish will be done in about 10 minutes or so.
• If you don’t have a freestanding grill, use a baking dish. Push the coals and embers to the left or right side of the oven and then wait until the oven temperature registers around 500 degrees F. Place the dish at some distance from the embers. The fish will be done in 10-15 minutes.

Serve with a fresh endive and tomato salad.

By the way, you can enhance the food you cook in your wood-burning oven by using different kinds of woods. By now you know to use only hardwood that is nice and dry. This provides the highest BTU (British Termal Units, a way to measure the amount of heat) and also will keep your oven floor free from resins and other trouble.

So for cooking fish try using alder, maple, apricot, peach, plum, nectarine, almond because they bring out the best flavors in your seafood.

Buon appetito!