Puglia August 2014 - Pizza Oven

The highlight of our last visit to Trullo Azzurro was having a pizza chef come round and cook at our place. We invited a number of friends round - we were eleven in total - and hired Angelo to fire up the oven.  He came with all the ingredients and balls of dough ready to go.

It is a proper forno a legno - it took a couple of hours for the oven to get up to full white heat. You know the oven is ready when the roof is glowing white - like with barbecue charcoal. Then the embers are spread over the floor of the oven to warm that. They are then pushed to one side when the floor is warmed - and thereafter the heat is topped up by burning logs off to one side.

Of course part of the entertainment is having a go at making our own pizzas. It is definitely not as easy as Angelo made it look. First Elaine and Andrea had a go, then some of the other guests.

Naturally we had a go as well although ours were not as circular nor as even in thickness as the professional's.

And in they go.

The assembled article in the oven.

Angelo soon had a steady stream of hot pizzas coming out of the oven over the next hour or so. He allows one and a half pizza per person so, even with these thin crust pizzas, we did not go hungry.

At the end of the evening, as it cooled down, some sat in the warmth of the antechamber to extend the evening.

A great evening's entertainment, definitely to be repeated next year.

Trullo Azzurro: beautifully restored trullo in delightful, secluded valley near Locorotondo, Puglia, Italy. Available to rent on a per week basis, sleeps 8-10. For more information visit http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/trulloazzurro