Recently I was given a gift of a Ooni Pizza Oven. Jesse felt some kind of obligation to give me something for letting him crash at my place for a few months last year. Completely unnecessary, but I won’t turn down the pizza oven.

One night Jay (who is a pizza chef of some note), Jesse (a pizza eater of some note), and I (also a pizza eater of some note) got together to take it for its maiden voyage.

Because we didn’t really know what we were doing, I tried to make it fairly easy and maybe went too low end on one of the ingredients.

Here are some pictures from the maiden voyage:

It is wood fired, but it can be modified to also run on propane.

The fire is at the back of the oven.

While I was making the pizzas up, Jay got the fire going with some old matches.

Good fire makes good pizza.

Pizza 1: Sausage, hamburger, white onions, red onions, mushrooms, and green peppers.

Inside the belly of the beast.

We badly underestimated how quickly it cooks. Lesson 1. Turn pizza at the 1 minute mark or under.

Pizza 2: Really more of the same.

Also learned to lubricate the peel to make it easier to turn the pizza.

Pizza 2 a touch burnt, but still delicious.

My one real regret with the ingredients for the maiden voyage was that because I was trying to make everything quick and easy, I went too low end on the sauce. I got Hy-Vee pizza sauce and it is trash. It is runny and bland tasting. Even after I tried to church it up a bit by mixing in some Italian seasoning.

I have a really good sauce recipe from some family friends that I’ll have to crack out someday. I also have their crust recipe as well.

Anyways, if you ask nicely, I may invite you over for pizza some night. I also have a tentative plan to take it camping some time. I just haven’t found the right camping trip yet.

Next Sunday’s food adventure is more of an endorsement. An endorsement that doesn’t need to be made. But I’m going to make anyways.