Cheap VS Expensive Outdoor Pizza

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

1kg bread flour, plus extra to knead

600ml cold water

1 sachet instant yeast

20g salt

25ml olive oil

Easy Pizza Sauce

Tin of plum tomatoes, skin-off

Pinch of salt

Pizza toppings

Mozzarella ball

Parmesan, freshly grated

Handful torn basil leaves

Olive oil for drizzling

Welcome to another cheap vs expensive (or steep, gourmet, luxury, HOW MUCH?! etc) video where we make the same recipe and compare the taste / value for money with different ends of the ingredient budget spectrum! This time we are returning to the pizza comparison, we’ve done an indoor one before, but does an outdoor oven with higher temperatures make all the difference? Below is the recipe method that was used if you want to give it a try, with pointers on which ones matter.

Cheap vs Expensive Pizza Oven Pizza Recipe

First up, you need (knead) to get the dough going and then need (not doing it again) how long you want to wait for your dough, if you leave it 48 hours the flavours will be really intense for example! Here, we’ll do like we did in the video, so a little quicker. If you do want to leave it longer, just leave to prove in a fridge, covered with lightly oiled cling film, allowing a large bowl with space for it to grow. Remove and allow to adjust to room temperature before dividing up as per the dough step in this method below, worth it if you can wait for sure.

Of all the ingredients the tinned tomatoes, fresh basil and oil makes the most difference

Add the water and yeast together, whisk to combine until dissolved. Pour this mixture into a big bowl with the flour and knead well with your hands or an electric whisk with dough hooks. It should be fairly rigid with no dry bits, if there are after good mixing, add a tsp of water at a time and keep mixing to get a nice dough like mixture. Add in the olive oil and salt and knead through for a few minutes, turn out onto a floured surface and knead well.

Place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl for an hour in a warm spot to rise / double in size. You can also divide into smaller sizes if you prefer and roll into balls, placing on a lined baking tray, putting in a warm area covered in a tea towel instead of the oiled bowl. Again, waiting for an hour at least to double in size.  If doing the overnight cold prove in the fridge, do this instead.

Divide up the risen dough into approx. 250g balls, leave to rest at room temperature for an hour if you can (you can also place the dough in the fridge here at this point to ferment for 24-48 hours) on a lined baking tray. Then when ready, shape the dough using your hands and a floured surface into large discs ready for topping.

To make the sauce, simply blend up the plumb tomatoes, drain off any initial juice using a sieve to prevent a soggy pizza, stir in a pinch of salt to the remaining thicker tomatoes, your sauce is ready.

Decorate your pizza how you like, we used a sprinkle of parmesan / grana Padano, then the mozzarella slices, finally some basil leaves. Cook in the oven at approx. 420c for 90 seconds, turning carefully until charred. Finish with some extra olive oil if you wish.