I’ve wanted one of these outside pizza ovens for years, but living in rentals it’s been impossible. And even now that we’re in our own place, it’s too damn small to fit one in the backyard. When we get ‘the farm’ we’ll build one, but for now I’ll just use Andy’s. He’s a mate that’s a bricky, and although he’d never made one before he read a few ‘how to’ books and whipped one up, and it’s a wee ripper! His oven cooks a pizza beautifully! I made a batch of pizza base using 00 flour, I then smoked a trout and played around with a few variations. My favorite being smoked trout, Warrnambool Buffalo Mozzarella, Meredith Goats Cheese, Anchovies, pickled jalapeno, home pickled olives, home made passata (reduced to a paste), home grown rocket and thyme, drizzled with home made olive oil. Did I mention home made?

I rolled out many a pizza, and the mouths kept chomping. The kids ate three pizzas between the two of them! Okay so they were small pizzas, but seriously they were little motor mouths!

After a few beers/wine Andy and I discussed the concept of an underground guerilla pizza night, where punters can come with eskies and picnic rugs, order off the menu of 3 pizzas and as payment, make a ‘donation’ to the Andy veg garden development fund. We just have to convince his boss that it’s a good idea!

While we wait for approval, we’ll just cook more pizza. mmmmmmm pizza

PS. This pizza day is one of a 5 part series of me cooking stuff that I’ve been working on for ABC online Ballarat. Hopefully it will be live in a week or two. No laughing at my presenting style please!