Woodfired Cheese Pizza: Yes, No or Maybe?

September 5 was National Cheese Pizza Day but what are the options when it comes to putting cheese on your woodfired gourmet pizza and are there any rules?  What should you be rustling up in your top-of-the-range Valoriani woodburning oven from Orchard Ovens, whether in your garden or inside your regular kitchen and what won’t work?

Well let’s start with the rules when it comes to cheese.  The reference point for this is probably the strict criteria laid down by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), the guardians of Neapolitan pizza.

A restaurant owner cannot claim to serve real Neapolitan pizza unless they have AVPN approval.  To gain that, the pizza maker must follow what is known as the decalogue – 10 rules applying to the creation of Neapolitan pizza. 

Neapolitan pizza ‘decalogue’ rules applying to cheese

The decalogue mainly references the production of two types of pizza – the Marinara and the Margherita - as the cornerstones of Neapolitan pizza tradition.  The Marinara actually carries no cheese.  The Margherita, on the other hand, is topped with mozzarella.  However, it must be one of two types of mozzarella, ideally sourced in the Campania region of Italy.   The first is buffalo mozzarella and the other option is fior di latte.  The former is made from buffalo milk and the latter from cows’ milk.

If using buffalo mozzarella, it should be chopped into slices, whereas fior di latte is cut in strips.  Either way, cheese should be uniformly spread around the pizza.  If grated cheese is used at all, this should be spread with a circular and uniform movement of the hand.

Red tomato in the middle of a Margherita should blend with the white of mozzarella and the green of basil leaves.  On leaving the oven, the pizza – of no more than 35cm in diameter – should have a slightly acid scent produced by the mozzarella and tomato.  The savoury mozzarella should contribute to an intense flavour of a pizza that should be foldable (a libretto) and have been cooked for no more than 60-90 seconds, preferably in a woodburning oven, just like a Valoriani top-of-the-range woodburning oven.

Cheeses to try on your wood-fired home-cooked pizza

For those chefs not seeking accreditation from the AVPN, there are other cheeses that can be used, and other styles of pizza beyond the Neapolitan, in your commercial pizza oven from Orchard Ovens.  Provolone is a great cheese to mix with mozzarella for more depth of flavour.  For a creamy texture, there is burrata, a cousin of mozzarella from the Puglia region.

Those wanting a slight nuttiness and tangy flavour to their pizza topping might want to try asiago cheese, or maybe taleggio, an easily spread creamy cheese.

If creating a topping that includes caramelised onion, reach for a gruyère, whilst any pizza topping that includes spinach, or a peppery sausage, will probably benefit from the inclusion of fontina, for added balance.  If your Valoriani woodfired pizza is carrying any sort of roasted or barbecued meat, Gouda would be a great choice.

‘Nduja is ‘in’ at present as a pizza topping and that pairs up beautifully with a blue cheese, such as gorgonzola.

Soft cheeses on pizza and experimentation

Goats cheese is often a popular favourite on pizza, particularly if a chef wants to contain the area in which the cheese melts and not have it spread right across the pizza top.  Bites of tangy cheese can then be enjoyed, as the diner reaches the area in which a goat’s cheese pocket has formed.

The same effect can be created with ricotta, but a word of caution.  Do not cook the ricotta in your woodfired pizza oven, but place it, as you wish, on top of the pizza once it comes out.

Of course, much of the fun in owning your own woodburning pizza oven lies in experimentation.  You may have local cheeses that you wish to try out on your pizza, or a particular favourite that you long to team up with other toppings.  Just consider how the cheese melts and what impact that will have on your pizza.  Does it contain a lot of moisture, or not?  Will it quickly burn and should you apply it before or after baking?  After a bit of trial and error with your Valoriani woodburning pizza oven, you should get there and have it all down to perfection.

Quattro formaggi woodfired pizza … for true cheese lovers

For some pizza lovers, you can never get enough cheese, which is why the Quattro Formaggi pizza exists, we guess!  This type of pizza is believed to have first been created in the Lazio region of Italy and it combines four different types of cheese and little else, other than sometimes tomato on the base. 

The four most common cheeses to feature are mozzarella, gorgonzola, fontina (sometimes replaced by taleggio or stracchino) and Parmigiano grated over the top.  Here, the cheeses are layered, with mozzarella as the base and protector of the other cheeses and the others on top, finished off by grated Parmigiano (or pecorino).

However, in some pizzerias, the pizza actually has the cheeses each occupy a quarter of the topping, so a different cheese can be sampled in each mouthful.

You can also get a Due Formaggi pizza, a Tre Formaggi or even a Cinque Formaggi, which adds in the goat’s cheese.  In the example of the quartered pizza, it may well actually be a Cinque Formaggi, with goat’s cheese occupying one quarter and the grated Parmigiano sprinkled on top, if desired.

This is probably the truest cheese pizza for National Cheese Pizza Day but you can make your pizza how you want it, according to how great a ‘turophile’ (cheese lover) you are.  If, on the other hand, you are lactose intolerant or have turophobia (phobia of cheese) and cannot bear to be near cheese, there are plenty of options to go for that are cheese-free.

Cooking cheese pizza in your Valoriani woodburning pizza oven

Cooking gourmet woodfired pizza at home becomes a piece of cake after a few attempts, if you have a Valoriani wood-fired oven, so you can soon be creating different toppings to order, if you get yourself organised with your toppings, prepped and ready to go.  With just a few minutes cooking time per pizza, at the very most, you will be loading and unloading pizzas in a very short space of time, ensuring everyone can be fed together pretty quickly.

Of course, Italians don’t ‘do’ garlic bread or cheesy garlic bread but there’s nothing to stop you from cooking either of those, if you have a woodburning pizza oven at home!  

If you do decide to cook up a cheese pizza in your Valoriani home pizza oven, or even your commercial pizza oven in your restaurant, mobile pizza van, or café, tag us in on your pics on social.  We’d love to share them and find out how much everyone loves the cheese pizza creations cooked up in your authentic Italian woodburning pizza oven by Valoriani.

And if you want to have an authentic Tuscan pizza oven, call us on 07743 847647, so we can match you up with the right pizza oven for your lifestyle, garden or home kitchen, or for your commercial pizza oven needs.

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Editors notes

Orchard Ovens is the domestic and commercial pizza oven supplier in the UK of Valoriani, based in Reggello, Tuscany - the manufacturer of Italy's hugely respected Valoriani pizza ovens, known as the Maserati of pizza ovens and the kings of clay. These ovens are made from superb refractory clay - cotto clay - found in the family's quarry and unique, thanks to having just the right alumina. This allows Valoriani ovens to heat up quickly and retain heat superbly, bring huge advantages to homeowners, as well as restaurant owners, hotels, pubs, mobile caterers, pizzerias, takeaways and more.

Orchard Ovens supplies some of Britain's best-known restaurants and chefs, whilst it is also a specialist creator of outdoor kitchens and wood-fired oven builds for the rich and famous, as well as everyday homeowners wishing to add value to their home and enjoy an outdoor lifestyle to the full.