Na Hansell’s Pizza on the AGA

Ingredients

Makes six 20cm snack-size pizzas or two AGA baking tray size pizzas.

Useful equipment: pizza peel or paddle or a large baking tray lined with Bake-o-Glide.

• 330g water
• 7g sachet or 1 tsp dried yeast
• 500g strong white bread or pizza flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp coarse polenta for use with a peel or paddle
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil for large pizzas
• 400g of tomato pizza sauce (simply made from tinned tomatoes mixed with several good swigs of olive oil and seasoned with 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt).
• 250g grated mozzarella cheese
• 2-3 balls of fresh mozzarella or toppings of your choice.

Method

Warm the water and yeast in a Pyrex jug on the back of the AGA for 10 minutes.

Weigh the flour and salt into a medium-sized bowl and add the warm water and yeast mixture. Mix briefly until there are no dry patches and leave to rest for 10-20 minutes.

Knead the dough, either by hand for 10 minutes or so or in a food mixer with a dough attachment on the slowest speed. Put the dough in a warm place – in a bowl, sat on an AGA chefs’ pad or a folded tea towel on the lid of the simmering plate.

Cover with a tea towel, beeswax wrap or cling film for an hour or so until it has doubled in size. For individual pizzas, the dough can be shaped into balls, covered and left to rest again for an hour at room temperature or for up to 48 hours chilled in the fridge. A shallow storage box with a lid is useful for this.

To make, shape and assemble the pizzas, take a pizza peel or paddle and dust with some coarse polenta (this helps the pizza to slide off the paddle into the oven). Next, take a ball of dough – which should now be quite stretchy again – dip it in flour and stretch it with your hands until it’s thin. Then place it on the peel or the paddle, spoon over some pizza sauce to thinly cover the dough, going almost to the edges.

Add a handful or two of grated mozzarella and any other toppings. For a simple Margherita pizza, just tear up half a ball of mozzarella cheese and put it on top of the grated cheese.

Finally, give the paddle a gentle shake to check the pizza is still moving freely, then slide it directly on to the floor of the AGA roasting oven.

Bake for 5-10 minutes until it’s crispy on the base and the cheese is bubbling on top. Finish with some ground black pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprig of fresh basil.

Tip – For a larger pizza, take a full-size AGA baking tray or AGA cold plain shelf lined with Bake-o-Glide, place half the risen dough on the Bake-o-Glide and stretch it out towards the corners with your fingers. Add the pizza sauce and toppings in the same way as for individual pizzas and bake in the roasting oven on the second set of runners for 15 minutes until it’s crispy and bubbling.