It's Pizza Making Day!

Our visit to Agriturismo Fontanaro has come at the perfect point in our itinerary. We are about halfway through our trip, and everyone could use a little "down-time".

My group of clients, all family and friends, have a whole villa to themselves! After last night's late birthday dinner, today they get to sleep in a bit, and fix their own breakfast when they feel like it.

They just have to be ready by noon today. What's happening at high noon? It's pizza-making time!

Before we start making the pizza dough, we have a little olive oil tasting lesson. We're tasting the olive oil that is produced at Fontanaro. We look at the color, smell the aroma, and have a taste.  It's just like tasting wine!

We will be making our pizzas in a wood-fired oven. It actually takes many hours for the oven to get hot enough, so the fire has been burning in the oven all morning.



Now comes time to make the pizza dough. Anna shows us how to make the dough from scratch. She builds a well of flour, adds a pinch of salt, some olive oil and a yeast mixture. Then comes the mixing and kneading. 

Because the dough needs time to rise, the dough we're making is not actually what we'll be using today. Anna already prepped our dough earlier in the day. Isn't it beautiful?

Everyone takes their turn working the dough, stretching, kneading...until it is nice and smooth. Then the dough gets a second rising on the pan, before it is finally ready to roll out.

We start rolling, and building a huge variety of pizzas. The first pizzas are topped with the classic Umbrian ingredients of sweated onions, and fresh sage. And of course ALL the pizzas get a liberal drizzle of Fontanaro's delicious, organic olive oil.

Next up, the classic Margherita pizza:

And, one of my personal favorites; zucchini blossoms both, with and without anchovies. (I prefer with.)

Here's another pizza that was new to all of us. Lucia cooked two blank pizza doughs in the oven. On top of the first one, she spread a delicious creamy cheese. The cheese was topped with lots of fresh arugula, then she pressed the second cooked pizza dough on top; like a sandwich. It was a pizza with fabulous contrasts. In each bite, you got the crispy crust with the creamy cheese and hot dough with cold arugula...very interesting and delicious.

Here are a few more photos in case you're not hungry yet:

And last, but not least.....did you know dessert can be made in the same oven? Lucia whipped up these delicious brioche buns, and after they came out of the oven, we split them open and filled them with ice cream! I know.....over-the-top deliciousness!

Alina Pinelli

We have had a simply fabulous day with Alina, her mom Lucia and Anna in the outdoor kitchen. The group thoroughly enjoyed their relaxing stay at Fontanaro. Though they swear they can never eat again, the group manages to cook themselves their own supper in their villa this evening. Tomorrow, we will be leaving Paciano for more adventures in Umbria.  Click on the link below to see a lovely little video of our group making pizza (made by Alina).  http://t.co/eqad5rKUDn