The Beginning...Pizza Love!

About two years ago I became obsessed with pizza. My love affair with pizza actually started as a child. My mother made homemade pizza most Fridays along with pasta fagiole. My maternal grandmother made lots of pizza in her basement kitchen on Catalina Avenue in Youngstown Ohio. She was known for her pizza a variety of what is called "Briar Hill Pizza" in Youngstown. Briar Hill Pizza uses grated Romano cheese instead of mozzarella.


 I do not make that kind of pizza, I go for the thin kind and the recipe I use is a variation of my mom's which I have to say I get a lot of compliments. I love pizza so much, that now I want to make pizza as they do in Naples. So I am building a wood fire oven by hand. This has been a process. Each step from the slab up requires me to do a lot of reading and preparing but even with that, it is not as perfect as I would like it to be. I am a producer for a TV station, I shoot, write and edit my own work. It is a job I love and do well. But I do not know too much about building things, so I take my time and do each step in my head. Now the slab is down, the plinth is built and the oven floor is laid, and I am building the form out of sand and thought this might be a good time to share my experiences.  


I'll start with pictures.

The plinth is done--- I created a space underneath to store the fire wood. 

The shelf was made by using thick  five inch wide long strips of slate from Construction Junction. 

I lined it with plastic, the bottles are for added insulation.