Top That: Isle of Wight Ninja

A second topping post following on from last weekend's firing, this one slightly more traditional, a margherita with spicy nduja sausage or as I prefer to call it, the Isle of Wight Ninja. I picked up some stunning Isle of Wight tomatoes from the market, crushed over the dough these were better than any tinned tomatoes I could have used. For a bit of spice I added some nduja, the spicy Calabrian pork sausage and favourite of the Pizza Pilgrims 

keeping it simple, the oregano's not pictured here as that went straight from the plant to the pizza

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Isle of Wight toms

Mozzarella

Fresh Oregano

Parmesan

not a bad looking set of ingredients

Extra prep?

None again, I wouldn't add any extra oil, plenty comes out of the nduja

What I'd do differently

Not much, I'd possible add a chopped chilli for a bit more kick but given every batch of nduja seems to have a different level of spice this is one to adjust to taste

Top That: Stilton Cheeseboard

I've long been a fan of the Serious Eats pizza blog, Slice and in particular their Top This feature which in their own words "show[s] you how to replicate unusually topped restaurant pies at home". Now I'm a pie fan but a pie to me is prefaced by the word "pork" and as a British pizza blogger I'll be sticking with the word pizza. Minor quibble's aside it's a great series and I've enjoyed following their suggestions to create many a memorable pizza at home. As homage to this I'd like to do something similar so here's the first post with one of my own creations, the stilton cheeseboard.

We had a block of stilton in the fridge which was looking pretty sorry for itself and that formed the inspiration for this pizza. Combined with some rosemary from the garden, walnuts for texture and some grapes for a touch of sweetness this turned out reasonably well.

...decided against adding the pancetta and parmesan cheese in the end

Ingredients

Our favourite sourdough base

Stilton

Chopped rosemary

Sliced grapes

Walnuts

Mozzarella

Rocket

Olive Oil

ready for Bertha

Extra prep?

None really, although I added the rocket after baking to retain it's freshness

straight out of the oven

... and just before we demolished it

What I'd do differently

The olive oil wasn't needed, a fair amount of oil came out of the stilton. I'd add half a teaspoon of honey next time to balance the acidity and salt in the stilton too.