Fire-Ovened Pizza

Georgia is a country with a proud culinary tradition — there are many parallels to European cuisine and indeed asian influences. There can be no clear declination of culinary heritage on the Silk Road, but once we knew we would have access to a wood-fired oven it was clear that homemade Pizza would be a priority.

It's one of those dishes that we believe to be synonymous with Italy but again the heritage of the dish is somewhat more complicated than that due to the fact that the explorer Marco Polo was heavily influenced by what he discovered in China — with some reports suggesting that the idea of placing toppings on the pizza was inspired by the Scallion Pancakes he found in China, thus we decided to make a pizza halfway between Italy and China using mostly Georgian ingredients.

We said make from scratch, so we start with the fire… (yes you can use an oven)

Whilst the fire is burning up to make the embers to cook on we can make the dough

Take the flour, the olive oil, salt and dry yeast (not pictured) and place it in a large bowl (or pan)

Then add one glass of lukewarm water, mix with a spoon, you don’t want to get your hands sticky yet.

The mixture will still be too dry, but that’s how we want it… tip it onto the kneading board and work it a little

Now you can add the 1/2 glass of lukewarm water to get the right consistency

Knead the dough well until you have a consistent dough

Now turn the kettle on to boil your water for the bain-marie

Put a little flour in the base of your proving bowl, place your dough in and sprinkle with flour

Fill a pan with boiling water and put the bowl with the dough on top, cover with cling film

Leave to prove for 40 mins

Now prepare your toppings, thinly cut cooks better…

Your fire should be good now

Roll out your now nicely elastic dough to the right size

Grease your baking pan with oil (you can use a stone if you have one)

We like to pre-cook the base for a crisp finish — 2 mins should do…

Take the base out from the oven and garnish with tomato paste and your chosen toppings

Into the oven with your pizza and depending on how hot you have the oven watch when you think it is ready — 300 degrees will be about 5–7 mins

Serve with a glass of Saperavi Red wine (Argentine Malbec will do otherwise)

Your cat may be interested in the leftovers…

Ingredients (this was for 2 Pizzas)

Approx 600g strong white flour

25ml Olive Oil

1.5 Glasses warm water (approx 300ml)

One pack of dry yeast (or a lump of fresh yeast)

A decent pinch of salt

300g Cheese

200g tomato paste

3 tomatoes

Mushrooms

Tin of black olives

Red peppers

Green Chillis

Preparation time approx 1.5 hours

Taste: better than any Pizza you ever tried

Cooking, Adrian & Sofiya

Photos, Anna & Adrian

For food photography contact us at Tbilisi Portraits

Cat action, Smoky