Excerpted from Farmhouse Vegetables by Michael Smith. Copyright © 2023 Michael Smith. Photographyby Al Douglas. Published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random HouseCanada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
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| Makes 4 medium pizzas serving 4 to 6, easily doubled |
Ingredients
Special Tools
- Wood oven
- Surface temperature thermometer
- Pizza peel
- Pizza cutter
- Oven mop
- Oven coal scraper
For the Apple Pizza Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 6 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 4 large honey crisp apples or your favourite variety, unpeeled, cored, cut into chunks
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper
For the Pizzas
- two 8-ounce balls of your own whole-wheat pizza dough or store-bought from the supermarket or your favourite local pizzeria, halved into 4 balls
- 12 ounces smoked cheddar cheese, grated
- 6 ounces thinly sliced country ham or proscuitto, rolled and chiffonade cut into thin ribbons
Directions
The Fire
- Build a steady active fire in your wood oven, tending for several days as needed to fill the thermal mass with retained heat. Monitor the cooking temperature with a high temperature thermometer or handheld infrared thermometer (page xx). Tend the fire bringing the oven floor to at least 700°. Before baking push all the live fire embers into a tight pile in the back corner of the oven leaving a large clear baking area. Brush and clean the baking surface with a dedicated wet cotton mop.
Make the Sauce
- In a medium sauce pot over medium-high heat briefly sauté the onions, garlic and olive oil until sizzling and fragrant, but not browned, 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the oregano. Add the apples, wine and salt. Bring the mixture to a slow simmer and cook until the apples are very tender, 15 minutes or so. Puree smooth with an immersion blender. Reserve.
Shape the Dough
- Lightly flour your hands, work surface, a baking peel, and the dough balls. One at a time, stretch, pull and shape a dough ball into a thin disc with raised edges, 12” or so across. Place on the peel and shake gently to confirm that’s its not sticky. Practice your release snap before loading the dough with toppings.
Assemble the Pizza
- Working quickly, using the back of a spoon, evenly spread 3 ounces of sauce across the dough surface to within 1/2” or so of the edge. Sprinkle ham across the surface and cover evenly with 3 ounces of cheddar cheese.
Bake the Pizza
- Add a piece of fuel to the embers, waiting for tongues of live flame to lick the ceiling before firing the pizza. This balances the intense retained heat in the oven floor with equally fierce heat above so the dough and toppings cook together. Pick up the pie and transfer to the floor of the wood oven, releasing with a quick reverse snap. Position at least 8” inches from the ember pile. Bake, rotating once, until the bottom is golden brown, the edges crusty and lightly charred, and the cheese lightly browned and bubbling, as little as 2 minutes, but no more than 5 minutes. Often the first pie of any pizza baking rally is a calibration effort as the full heat of the oven reveals itself to the baker.
- Transfer the pizza to a cutting board surface away from dough assembly area. Slice into 8 wedges. Cool briefly. Serve and share festively with a fresh greens salad.