Pizza Round the Woodburner

Proper Wood Fired Pizza

I know it is summer and the thoughts of cold winter nights and warm food by the warm hearth are far from your minds right now, but trust me, you'll thank me eventually.

If you have ever been to an authentic Italian restaurant anywhere, even better if it was in Italy somewhere, and ordered an authentic wood-fired pizza you will understand why the Italians are so passionate about them and frankly nothing will ever again be good enough.

The taste is as different as it can get from what you can pick up in the frozen aisle of Tesco's So you sit there, with the wind howling outside and the rain hitting the windows with a force that you just know would sting your face if you had to go out in it that evening. Then some bright spark suggests a pizza and a bottle of wine by the wood burner would be a good idea for dinner tonight. It is amazing how a cold winter evening can be the mother of all invention when it comes to not having to go out again and getting wet for the umpteenth time that evening. You have the wood burner, it is lit and warming nicely and in the larder, you have all the ingredients to make a pizza base. 

Game on!!

Now I will confess, if you have retained the instruction manual for the bread maker, there will be a recipe for a pizza base. I have done it often whilst the good lady is in the shower and she doesn't suspect a thing (I think)!

Prepare the sauce using those Italian staple ingredients: fresh vine tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and basil. You'll find a tin at the back of the larder, with just this selection of ingredients. If not, poor planning I say, so for those needing help now, here is the recipe. Peel and finely slice the garlic, then fry in a good amount of olive oil until lightly coloured. Tear up a handful of basil leaves, and add them to the pan, along with your tomatoes. Use the back of a wooden spoon to mash up and squash the tomatoes as much as you can. Finally, add lashings of salt and pepper.

When your sauce comes to the boil, don't burn it! Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Using a sieve, strain the sauce into a bowl – then put your smooth, tomato mixture back into the pan, bring it to boil, then simmer until it’s the perfect consistency for spreading on your pizza base.


Then add whatever toppings, take your fancy, at the moment for us it is tuna and anchovy with loads of mozzarella. But it will soon change, it often does. Last winter it was sausage meatballs and a tin of corn with the tomato sauce and of course a lot of mozzarella cheese. Place your pizza on a suitable heavy metal dish and open the wood burner door and place your pizza in the hot stove and keep your eye on it. Be adventurous, it is the start of a perfect evening. 

Have a look at the range of Arada classic stoves at Wiltshire ranges and stoves and get your order lined up so you never have to spend another winter without your own traditional Italian pizza, hand made in Wiltshire

The Woodman