Wood Fired Fanatics

Pizza

UPDATE! The BEST Pizza Dough Recipe

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This recipe is truly the best and gets rave review from our guests.  We have tweaked it a little since the original post. Look for the highlighted areas to note the small adjustments, that believe it or not have made a difference in our dough.

Have you ever heard the phrase , “sometimes you can’t beat a man at his own game?” Well, it seems in this case we couldn’t beat a woman at her own game. After the ups and downs of the many recipes we have tried, I think we have landed on a keeper (at least for now). We are in love with a slight variation on Mugnaini Pizza Dough, Large Batch recipe. This dough has knocked everyone’s socks off!  I should start by saying that Mr. Fanatic cuts the recipe in half so as not to have so many dough balls.

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New Pizza-“The Bailey”

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Inviting friends to share in your pizza obsession is a great way to try new things. Ask someone what they would like on a pizza and you never know what they might come up with. Let me take you back to earlier in the day…

What’s the first question a guest asks when you invite them for dinner? “What can I bring?” My standard response is…”Just yourselves.” Last Saturday I was running behind when my sweet friend posed this question. So I said, “An appetizer, a light snack before pizza would be great.” Man, am I glad that I did because a new pizza was born from this simple request.

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Grow a Pizza Garden

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Spring has sprung, temperatures are heating up and I have gardening on the brain. I have been dreaming of a garden for years. However, in my mind there were a ton of obstacles that would prevent us from being successful…dogs, pests, pest control, living on a mountain made of rock, heat…  Once we started cooking in the wood fired oven, the need for a garden became very apparent, we were going through ingredients so quickly that it was getting expensive.  With a little effort we found solutions to all of my obstacles and have a fun, simple garden that we use every week.  We are looking to expand and have more variety but for now the essentials are in place.

Most of my obstacles were solved by having a raised bed garden rather than a garden in the ground.  Our home is built on the lower slope of a mountain in here in Phoenix, solid rock.  There was no way we could plant directly in the ground.  Not only is the ground hard, we have a dog which means she might dig up, go to the bathroom on, or eat our delicious treats.  Scorpions are a fact of life in our in the desert preserve area where we live, this means we use a pest control company to reduce them and their food sources.  For these reasons we felt our garden needed to be not only above the ground so we could fill with soil but actually off the ground to keep the dog and poison out! We looked at several different options but settled on troughs from the local feed store.  They provide the protection we need and look cool with their galvanized exteriors.

So what did we plant in these super cool troughs?  Our weekly staples are growing like weeds and happy as clams.  There are some other plants that we have lost to  lack of experience or pesky insects.

Rosemary

At least here in Phoenix, rosemary grows like a weed.  In many places it is planted as part of the landscape design.  However for us, we have one in a pot and the other in a trough because it have become one of our favorite toppings on olive oil pizzas.  I just have to share our most requested pizza:  Top your dough with olive oil(no tomato sauce here), mozzarella and parmesan and throw it in you pizza oven.  When you have about 30 seconds left to cook, slide it out and sprinkle chopped rosemary on top and put back in the oven until ready to serve.  It is so good.  Even die hard tomato sauce pizza fans will quietly eat this and then ask for more!

Basil

Of course you can’t have a pizza garden without basil…but did you know how many varieties there are?!?!  I had no idea.  We bought a basil plant at Trader Joe’s and quickly devoured it, so we planted two more.  The basil is fabulously delicious but when we had pizza at Pizzeria Bianco on Easter Sunday we discovered that they are using some other variety of basil that has little pointy tips on the leaves.  I found a plant at the farmers market and trimmed it as the gentleman told us.  It was starting to get established and sprouting a few leaves…and now the cutter bees (or something) have taken them back to the stem. So the jury is still out to determine if it will take off, or if I need to hit that farmer up for another plant.

Peppers

We love a spicy pizza and peppers are an essential part of spicy food.  We planted a Fresno, Serrano and Jalapeño peppers.  The plants did very well until there was a hiccup with our irrigation system and they lost their water source. The peppers were very hot and spicy.

This post will be a work in progress as more goodies are added to our garden…and survive!  I would love to know what you can’t live without in your pizza garden if you have one, or what you plant after this post inspires you to get out into your own garden.  If you love wood fired cooking and great food, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram so you know when the latest content is available. Please help me add to my garden by commenting on what you grow in your “pizza garden” below.

5 Pizza Ingredients You (might) Have Not Considered

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In case you haven’t figured it out yet…I LOVE PIZZA!  I love all different styles and toppings on pizza.  Wood fired pizza is definitely a clear front runner these days, but if someone asks, “If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life,” the answer is always pizza.  There are so many variations of pizza that it would be crazy to pick anything else.  We do all the usual toppings that you will find in every pizza establishment across the country…pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions.  We do use the highest quality versions of these ingredients,  like those you would find at higher end pizzerias in your neighborhood.  But some of our best pizzas have come from thinking (at least somewhat) outside the box.  These are the top 5 ingredients you might not have considered putting on a pizza.

Rosemary

I would say this is the most popular unexpected ingredient in our house.  From our daughter who does not like anything, to my dad who doesn’t try anything new, rosemary has been a unanimous success.  Most nights there is one pizza dough left that we are not going to make for dinner and we offer to send it home with a guest.  More often that not, that guest will ask for a pizza “sauced” with olive oil and topped with mozzarella and rosemary.  We grow it on our garden so we have it fresh and available at all times.

Honey

Recently a friend at work mentioned a great pizza she had with honey drizzled over the pie.  This triggered a memory that a bartender at Pizzeria Bianco had told us to purchase the McClendon’s Select honey if we saw it when we were shopping at the farmer’s market.  I found it that weekend and purchased the Desert Blossom flavor. Now to decide what to top the pizza with before drizzling with honey.  Sweet and spicy are always a great combination and I saw an Instagram post from @robertaspizza with a hunger inducing photo of the pizza they call the original “Bee Sting.”  I was stung and had to try it.  Mr. Fanatic wasn’t sold and thought I might be a bit crazy, until that spicy sweet combination touched his lips.  You. Must. Try. This.

Eggs

This was born out of the desire to have a breakfast pizza.  I don’t know that Mr. Fanatic has met a food that he does not think would be good or better “if you put an egg on it.”  We have made many a breakfast and dinner pie with “an egg on it.”  The best eggs are of course from your local farmer as they are so rich and delicious. Load your pizza with other flavorful toppings, put it in the oven to get it started, then crack a couple of eggs on top. If you can, remove a little of the white and put the rest of the white and all of the yolk on your pizza.

Asparagus

Asparagus is a vegetable star in my book.  I can eat asparagus in pretty much any preparation… sautéed, grilled, roasted, as a soup.  Or my favorite preparation of the moment, as a pizza topping!  I like to use the tips primarily and we put them on the pizza raw.  You can cut them into small pieces but I like my tips about an inch in length.  There is something about that asparagus flavor, but also the crunch that remains even after the pizza has been cooked. I have to say I also really like to put raw onions and bell peppers on pizza for the same reasons, a little sweetness and texture.

Smoked Meat

Smokey meat is great on its own.  Smokey meat is great on a sandwich. Why wouldn’t smokey meat taste great on a pizza???  We started with smoked jalapeño sausage from Rudy’s BBQ where we get takeout. That little bit of smoke made the pizza just a little bit different than other typical pizza meats.  This led to taking our own pulled pork, prepared by us, and adding it to a pie.  This is fun as a topping or even a BBQ pizza similar to the famous BBQ chicken pizzas everyone seems to love.

If nothing else, I hope this post encourages you to try something different on your pizza this week.  What leftovers are in your refrigerator?  Can you put them on a pizza? We even made an Indian pizza using leftover Chicken Tikka Masala. There is no wrong answer or topping. This also isn’t to say that I don’t love the traditional toppings that we use all the time, but it is fun to surprise your guests with something different, a topping they are unsure of, and knock their socks off with it!

If you want to see more amazing wood fired food, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @woodfiredfanatics.  Please comment your favorite toppings below so that I can try them on future pizzas!  I love new inspiration and eye opening new combinations of flavors.

Oops! When Bad Things Happen to Good Cooks…

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Each week we strive to make delicious food in our wood fired oven, but what does that Mary Chapin Carpenter song say? “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” You start out with the best intentions, beautiful fresh toppings, and homemade dough.  Some nights the results are incredible and others…well, let’s just say they are not pretty.  The incidence of pizza disasters is less than it was early on, but it still happens…even in the Fanatic household.

Sometimes you think you’ve done everything right and you end up with this…ZERO bloom, flat crust, no bubble.

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Deliciously Simple Pizza Dough

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What’s your favorite part of a pizza?  What’s one element that can make or break your pizza experience? What’s got the perfect blend of crunch and chew? What tastes best with a little char and bubble?  What pizza component should have leopard spots?

If your answer was CRUST for all of the above…we should be friends!

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Friday Night Pizza

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Friday night pizza is a tradition from my childhood. We would head to the local pizza parlor and spend time with family enjoying delicious pies and time together. Little did I know…Mr. Fanatic’s family and friends were in the same restaurant most Friday nights! (Although we probably fought over the Ms. PacMan machine, we did not officially meet until college.)

This love of Friday night pizza continued into adulthood. For years we would hit a local joint for pizza with friends or carryout nearly every week.  Boy has that changed!  Now Friday nights mean the smell of wood burning and flour covered hands. It means gathering in our kitchen to assemble pizzas with homemade dough and our favorite fresh ingredients.  We are typically not alone, preferring to share the evening with friends or family, just like the Friday nights we had as kids.

The collaboration with others has lead to so many fun experiences with topping combinations, adjustments to the dough recipe, odd shaped pizzas, and lots of fun.  Plus, the more mouths you have to feed, the more pizzas you can make! Our pizza nights read more like an all you can eat buffet with everyone getting a little of lots of different variations. Early on our staple pizza was the Margherita-sauce, cheese, basil. Simple. Straightforward. We made others but seemed to come back to this time and again. You can really taste the quality of the ingredients in this simple pizza. The way the tomatoes taste so fresh and sweet, the gooey slightly salty mozzarella, the heavenly basil aroma and flavor. (Sometimes I wonder if that smell could be bottled for perfume…but I digress…)

Lately our #1, most requested pizza, is our white pizza.  Often times we make two or three of them over the course of an evening.  No tomatoes here, just high quality olive oil, garlic, fresh mozzarella, salt and some chopped fresh rosemary from our garden. The rosemary is added and cooked during the last minute or so that the pizza is in the oven.  Even our extremely picky daughter devours this pizza (often an entire pie to  her-60lb-self. Ha!)

We encourage our guests to be part of the process.  Do you want to stretch your own dough? Go for it!  You want to try hot salami and pineapple? Do it! We try to have a wide variety of toppings available to suit any taste, even those we don’t like, for example mushrooms. (Ick!)  We have tried many different vegetables from sauteed fennel to bell peppers, asparagus to onions.  We love to top the pizza with arugula when it comes out of the oven. Something about the bitter peppery flavor just makes certain flavor combinations shine.  Meat is big at our house…pepperoni, italian sausage, andouille and even our new hot salami that we procured from a local restaurant (Mr. Fanatic was NOT leaving without it. But that’s a story for another day…)  One of my all time favorites is a farm fresh egg with a rich runny yolk that drizzles all over the pizza.

We’ve also varied our cheeses over time.  Parm-Reg that we brought home from Italy (in our VERY heavy suitcases) is on every pie. Sometimes it appears both before firing as a topping and after as a garnish (particulary good with fresh arugula).

As another Friday night rolls around you know where to find us…gathered around a hot oven, handling dough, socializing and creating delicious memories! Hope you are doing the same!

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