One of the most romantic notions of renting a villa in Italy for the month is the vision of making homemade pizza in an authentic wood fired oven every day. Blessed with quite possibly the most handsome pizza oven in Italy, our destiny was set: to prepare the dough using tipo '00' flour, water and yeast, then allow it to proof until the magic moment. Using dried twigs and some pages from 'La Repubblica', a small fire was started in the oven an hour or so before lunchtime, then augmented with small logs, graduating to larger ones as the fire took hold — a process that takes about 20-30 minutes. With an internal temperature of about 800°F, it was time was roll out the dough, slice the buffalo mozzarella, lay out the lovely plump Italian anchovies, chop the garlic, and ravage our basil plants. Pouring a glass of Prosecco to get the culinary juices flowing, we were ready to create the perfect pizza. Using our own pizza peel, the Pizza Margherita was placed into the wood fired oven, shimmied onto the hot surface and cooked for just a minute or two. The dough was perfectly crisp and chewy, the melted buffalo mozzarella divine and the flavour mouthwateringly sublime. With enough dough for 2 more pizzas we uncorked a splendid Arnaldo Caprai Montefalco Rosso and toasted our success, just as Piccola, a kitten who had recently adopted us, come by to see if we had perhaps dropped an anchovy or two.
Fresh local ingredients for the perfect Margherita Pizza with our own homegrown basil
Gradually adding wood to the fire for about an hour, the pizza oven is almost ready
The rose garden beside the pizza oven was in bloom and wonderfully fragrant
Beautiful view over the swimming pool, olive grove and Umbrian countryside
Our favourite Prosseco while we were in Italy — we collected a lot of corks!
Tiny bubbles, wonderful flavour and elegant flutes — meraviglioso
Guy's Pizza Margherita on the portable peel we brought from home,
ready to go into the wood fired oven
Two or three minutes later — pizza perfection
Placed on a chopping board by the herb garden beside the pizza oven,
Guy's Margherita is lovingly sliced and served
A lovely sunny warm afternoon, a bottle of my favourite wine and Guy's homemade pizza
"Well hello there...anything for me?"
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