February 2012
No. 35; Redesigned P70 & Pizza Quest Nomination
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Welcome!

Once again, we have a newsletter chockfull of wood-fired oven updates and information! The Forno Bravo team has been busy at work on our oven lines, redesigning an old favorite and creating new oven styles. We share a couple of these with you below: the Primavera70 and the Andiamo.

I’m honored to pass along the news that Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart has received a nod from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, nominated as one of three best culinary blogs of the year. Pizza Quest is a labor of love, and we are so proud of the work Peter, Brad English, the webisode film crew and guest columnists have put into this wonderful resource. Congratulations all!

We’ve also included a new dessert recipe for you to try in your oven (we need more wood-fired desserts!), a roundup of even more news for current and future oven owners, and of course our monthly special offer at the bottom.

Enjoy!
James

Redesigned Primavera70

With a redesign, our popular Primavera70 is completely new, and now comes with a black powder-coated metal tray and stand like the Primavera60. We had to do some serious design work to get the weight down so you can set the P70 on the stand with four to six strong guys – without taking away anything from how well it bakes. And we did it!

The P70 now looks just like the P60 – including the stand and tray. The Primavera70 with the stand is now available for purchase and is in full production. We are shipping them as fast as we are making them.

Note that there are “no stand” versions of both Primaveras: the Primavera60NS and Primavera70NS. The no stand versions can be installed on a BBQ island or custom stand.

Interested? Check FastQuote for pricing information and custom shipping costs.

Peter’s Corner: Pizza Quest Inks IACP Nomination

Peter Reinhart, our superb Pizza Quest host, baking instructor and baker extraordinaire, shares some very good news!

Among the terrific gifts I received for my birthday recently, I got some especially great news: Pizza Quest has been nominated by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) as one of three finalists for best culinary blog of the year! Here’s a link to all the nominees in the book and media categories:

I’ll be in NYC for the annual IACP conference, where the winners will be announced at the awards gala on April 2, and where I will also be doing a demo presentation on sprouted grain flours on April 1. The IACP is an amazing organization, bringing together food professionals from across all categories. The annual conference, which is held in a different city every year, is the best networking event of the year for the professional culinary community.

I love this organization and owe a lot of my success to it, including a Book of the Year Award and numerous contacts that have led to ongoing consulting and media projects, not to mention many new friends. Networking really does work, I’ve learned, and now I’m thrilled that Pizza Quest has been recognized by this same organization as a finalist for Culinary Blog of the Year. If any of you are involved in the professional culinary world and are not aware of or already active in the IACP, you are missing a golden opportunity to invest in and advance your career. Check out the website: www.iacp.com.

And, congratulations to our fellow blog nominees – I just visited your sites and am deeply impressed. Congrats also to all the book and journalism nominees. I’ll report again on the conference and the awards gala in April. Meanwhile, feel free to spread the word about our nomination.

Condensed from Peter’s full post about the nomination.

Community Cookbook Recipe: Cherry Clafoutis

We hope you enjoy this month’s featured recipe from the Forno Bravo Community Cookbook, written by our moderator Dan Compton. Want to add your own recipe? Take a few moments to create a free Community Cookbook account: post recipes, ask questions, share photos, comment and vote!


This is a recipe I adapted from the inimitable Julia Child. I honestly don’t know why people don’t make or serve clafoutis more often – it’s one of the easiest desserts imaginable, you can make one with pretty much any fruit you’d care to, and it’s absolutely delicious. Maybe it’s the scary-looking French name. Call it a deep-dish crepe if you wish, just make one for your next dinner party and wow your guests. I used frozen cherries here because it is February in Chicago, but if they’re in season feel free to go for fresh. (I’m also a big fan of peach clafoutis.)

Cherry Clafoutis

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 C plus 1/4 C sugar
  • 1 1/4 C half and half
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 T plus 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 C flour
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • butter for greasing your baking dish
  • 16 oz frozen pitted cherries
  • vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to garnish

Place the 1/3 cup of sugar, the half and half, eggs, vanilla, salt, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in the carafe of a blender. Blend until combined and smooth – it shouldn’t take any more than 15 seconds. Allow the batter to sit for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, butter an oven-safe round glass pie plate. Once the batter has rested, pour a small amount into the bottom of your baking dish so that it is covered by a quarter-inch. Place on a rack in your medium-hot wood oven – you want an air temp around 400F. Allow to bake for 4-5 minutes, until the batter has set.

Remove from the oven. Spread the cherries evenly over the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the cherries, then pour in the remaining batter.

Return to your oven and bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on the temperature of your oven. The clafoutis is done when it’s golden brown and set – a paring knife should come out clean when inserted into the middle.

Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes, then slice like a pie and serve with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. And one last thing – I thought better of it. Please don’t call it a deep-dish crepe. Embrace your inner Francophile. Say it with me: Cla-foo-TEE.

Special Offer:
Free Panissimo 00 Flour

Back by popular demand! We are rerunning the special from January: To celebrate the availability of Nicky Giusto’s great pizza flour, we are going to give a free two-pack (5 lb. bags) to the first five new Forno Bravo oven buyers who contact us by email. Sorry, this only applies to customers who order a Forno Bravo pizza oven after March 15, 2012. A new wood oven and Organic Panissimo 00 – wow, what a great combination!