The Wood-Fired Blog

Pizza Crust Stuffing

If you love pizza, and you love Thanksgiving, here is a fun way to combine the two! Mark and Jenny Bello of Pizza School NYC have concocted a delicious recipe that puts a new twist on a classic stuffing combination. By first baking pizza dough with onions for the bread element, you get a perfect flavor infusion built into the base of this stuffing mix that really takes it up... Read More

Tandoori Salmon in a Cast Iron Skillet

Congratulations to Jon Mills, the winner of our 2020 Fall Recipe Contest! His lively Tandoori Salmon recipe makes both a beautiful appetizer course or the main star on your menu. Prepared with a make-ahead marinade, the fish cooks extremely quickly in a wood fired oven, retaining both its moisture and flavor. Note: This recipe is written very generally because the ingredient amounts will vary significantly based on the number of... Read More

Roasted Soft-Shell Crabs with Potato and Corn Hash

This recipe is from our seafood expert, John Livera, who again shows us that wood fired cooking is about so much more than just pizza! For example, a delicacy that cooks up beautifully in a cast iron pan is soft-shell crab. It’s sweet, succulent flavor with a slightly crispy texture is a delight to seafood lovers everywhere. Soft-shell crabs are blue crabs that have been harvested immediately after they shed... Read More

Chicken and Pancetta Pizza

It’s easy to overthink – and over top – a wood fired pizza. Too much cheese, too many flavors, too much weight can all bog down the dough and reduce the crust’s oven spring, making it greasy or flat (or difficult to slide off the peel, resulting in a pizza disaster. Yikes!) This yummy pizza combination was contributed by guest chef and Forno Bravo oven owner, Gerry Speirs at Foodness... Read More

Spicy and Smokey Sausage Pizza

Guest chef, Gerry Speirs of FoodnessGracious.com is the proud owner of a tiled Napolino wood fired oven. He loves coming up with interesting pizza topping combinations like this Spicy and Smokey Sausage Pizza. It uses two kinds of sausage for a blend of flavors that are a step up from a classic meat pizza. One key ingredient is Calabrese Sausage. It is a dry-smoked, pork sausage from the Southern Italian... Read More

Baked Peach and Raspberry Crisp

We love the fresh tastes of summer; flavors like fresh-picked raspberries and juicy peaches! This dessert from John Livera takes just a few minutes to mix up before dinner. Let it rest while you enjoy your pizza service to give the flavors a chance to incorporate, and then pop it in your oven when the fire is down to embers to bake. What a delicious finish to the evening meal!... Read More

Pancetta and Doming

Two weeks ago, I posted information on wood and the flavor characteristics that the different woods can impart in the overall flavor of the pizza.  This week, as a follow-up, I wanted to talk a little about “doming” the pizza during the cooking process. To “dome” the pizza or “doming” is the practice of lifting the pizza off the hearth and holding it close to the dome for a short... Read More

Naan Bread is a versatile form of flat bread that has its roots in India and the Middle East. It is also super easy to make in a wood fired oven! This recipe for Lavender and Fennel Pollen Naan Bread is a gourmet adaptation of the basic recipe and brought to us by Chef Ryan Kirby of Wisconsin. Chef Kirby has a passion for making dishes with local, fresh ingredients. You can... Read More

Blackberry BBQ Chicken

Wendy O’Neal is a mother, blogger, author of multiple cookbooks, and proud owner of a Casa110 wood fired oven. Live Fire BBQ and Beyond is her latest cookbook. It was released in 2019. You can find her Casa oven featured in several of the recipes and photographs in the book. All of Wendy’s dishes are rigorously taste tested by her family and fans, so you know they are good! One... Read More