January 2022 | Number #152
WOOD FIRED NEWSLETTER
Dear Wood Fired Friend,

Happy New Year! As we move more fully into the grips of the winter season, we wish you delightful times of warmth around the fire, delicious food to fill your belly, and dreams of pizza oven adventures to come to comfort your mind as you look toward spring. Enjoy the recipes and builds spotlighted in this month’s Newsletter, as we bring you new images and dip back into the archives for several classic, time-tested dishes and tips that are overdue for rediscovery! 

The Forno Bravo Team 

In This Issue

Idea Center: Indoor and Outdoor Oven Options

Wood fired ovens can be found in both indoor and outdoor kitchens all over the world. While outdoor settings are more common, they are far from the only place to install this style of oven. Click below to see several favorites submitted by customers and installers in a variety of settings and styles. These samples will help get your thinking cap going as you consider upgrades and extras that can be added to your home, patio, or yard this year.

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PIZZA 101

Super Sauce! How to Make The Perfect Classic Pizza Sauce for a Wood Fired Oven

At its essence, pizza is a simple food, which is part of what makes it so delicious. Dough, sauce, cheese, toppings. that’s it. So each element in the equation needs to be magnificent! This classic video from the Forno Bravo archives is a helpful, step-by-step tutorial on how to make authentic Italian pizza sauce. It is also the essence of simplicity, and has been viewed, used, tested, and approved by thousands of people around the world. Note: You can find the San Marzano tomatoes featured in this recipe on our online store, in most specialty grocery shops, or on Amazon.

WATCH VIDEO

Community Cookbook: 

Pizza ovens go through three stages on their wood fired journey each time you use them: heat up, full flame, and cool down. For efficiency, you can make use of all three stages for different styles of cooking and different dishes by matching the existing temperatures and use the heat the oven is already holding. Following are three examples to get you started, but the sky is the limit with the types of food you can make.

Warm-Up Exercises – Pita Bread

Pita bread is made with a basic dough recipe of flour, salt, yeast, water, and olive oil. Its thin, wet texture combined with the hot oven floor allows the steam inside to puff the bread up like a football in just a few minutes! It can be baked in a cooler oven than pizza and is a perfect appetizer to get the party started for your earliest guests. Watch Peter Reinhart’s demonstration from the Forno Bravo Booth at the International Pizza Expo to see how it is done.  

WATCH THE DEMO

Want something to go with it? Try Carrie Nalley’s Fire Roasted Eggplant Dip recipe from the Community Cookbook. It is a beautiful complement to Pita Bread.

Pizza Perfect Temps – Chicken and Pancetta Pizza by Gerry Speirs 

Once your oven is at full temperature and full flame, it is pizza making time. (Many home chefs prefer to use about 700°F at the cooking floor for better control, but you can go up to 900°F for the fastest Neapolitan-style bakes.) In this combination by Gerry Speirs of Foodness Gracious, enjoy a salty, smooth, satisfying sample of the best of what wood fired pizza can be.

A Cool Down Recipe – St. Louis BBQ Ribs

Reaching back to the 1930s, meatpackers in St. Louis. MS developed their own style of cuts and BBQ sauce for pork spare ribs. Traditionally, they used a squarer cut of meat and a thinner, more vinegary sauce than the Kansas City style BBQ to help differentiate it. However, their style was also noted for using indirect heat to slow cook the meat, first grilling, then saucing it for a faster bake. In this recipe, Chef Bart explains how to make these fall-off-the-bone ribs in your wood fired oven as a great way to use the residual heat left in your oven after a pizza party or other gathering. They are quite the crowd pleaser!

GET THE RECIPE

Product Spotlight

Colors Abound! A  Stucco Tone Slideshow 

Forno Bravo uses many finishes for our wood and gas fired ovens, but hand-painted stucco remains one of the most popular options. Stucco gives off an old-world vibe that matches the historic nature of wood fired cooking, and harkens back to the very roots of brick and clay ovens. 

We now offer seven beautiful, standard stucco colors to tie into your patio or entertaining area. View them here and imagine the one that would fit in best with your home. Available on the Primavera, Toscana, and Roma oven models.

VIEW THE COLORS

 Meet the Owners

Casa2G Kit Build with Stucco Finish

Interested in more stucco oven finishes? TR Plasma Creations recently completed a beautiful stucco build with a custom tile oven mouth for one of their clients. It was an indoor/outdoor space ideal for entertaining in all four seasons. Check out their professional work in this short video to inspire your build ideas!

WATCH NOW

 

 

Michael Degrow - Casa2G90 Build

Enjoy another kit build, but this time from one of our at-home builders. Michael G submitted this video of his Casa2G90 pizza oven to celebrate the completion of his project. With a red brick arch and a smooth stucco finish, it is a beautiful example of an elegant pizza oven that is accessible to the rest of us.

PIZZA TALK

Mark Todd Returns (A Master Class on Artisan Cheese: Cheddar)

This month, Peter Reinhart is back with Mark Todd, affectionately known as the “Cheese Dude.”  Together, they explore one of America’s favorite cheeses, cheddar! Their conversation is a full immersion into cheddar tasting across the various types, as defined by the aging cycles, regional milk types, raw vs. pasteurized, and also the skill of the cheesemakers themselves, who evoke the nuances and variations possible across the cheese spectrum. Enjoy another master class on this central pizza ingredient.

WATCH NOW

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