Clever Speedy dreamed of making pizza in his new tandoor oven, since the temperatures get so high. But how to do it? He found a square piece of slate on the property and cut it into a circle that just fit into the top of the oven. Then he fashioned an aluminium cradle for it that hangs over the top of the clay cooking chamber, but allows for the cover to fit on well.
He rolled out the dough; we dressed it with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, grated hot pepper cheese, onions and wurstel; then popped it in the tandoor:
While the pizza was cooking, we rolled out more dough to make a stracchino focaccia:
Pizza’s done!
As the lid of the tandoor doesn’t reflect down a lot of heat we put the pizza under the regular oven’s broiler for a couple of moments to finish off the top. Then one of us dressed her side with ruccola and we sat down to eat while the focaccia cooked.
No sense in wasting a good hot fire, so we shaped up some rolls for sandwich making. Out came the focaccia and in went the rolls:
And while those rolls are cooking, we might as well cook up a few sausages on vertical skewers under the stone (see above). For some, a meal is not complete without meat.
A side salad complemented the various courses. It was a delicious meal, fraught with jumping up and down to take one thing out and put the next thing in – great fun and very satisfying.









The physics of pizza cooking give one great respect for the pizzaioli. Years ago I made a wood burning brick oven for pizza in the US after seeing one on a farm in the hills above Ameglia. To use it, I also had to learn about reflected heat for the top, as well as preheating the fire brick floor, and providing a radiant heat shadow. The more problems solved, the better the pizza.
We had a wood stove, rather large, when we lived in the States. It was made of soapstone, and the place where the fire was served as an oven if we pushed the wood to the sides – very difficult to get the temperature just right, though. We usually just used the oven with stone tiles on the rack. Sounds like you really broke the code on how to make good wood oven pizza – complimenti.
That Speedy is one clever boy – a virtual wizard when it come to all things food and the creative preparation thereof. Your meal times are always an event, and I wish I could have been there to witness and enjoy this one! I am fortunate in being able to say that I have had my fair (fare?) share of such occasions this year, and thank you so much for that!
Wish you were close enough to eat over here more often…
Fabulous, and with the kind of great weather that you enjoy in Liguria, I expect that you’ll be creating more pizza meals until it’s time to pack up for the states. We bought a pizza stone for our Weber but still haven’t used it due to this rainy/cloudy weather that we’ve been experiencing lately.
The weather’s been a caution, hasn’t it? It hasn’t been very cheerful for the gardens either – ours is almost a dead loss this year. Hope you get to use your pizza stone soon – if anyone knows what to sizzle on it, it’s you guys!
I am in awe of you both, certainly, but of Speedy in this instance just a tad more.
He outdid himself with this one. And we sure have been enjoying eating Tandoori Everything!