Top That: Bacon and Sprouts (à la Motorino)

Sprouts get a lot of bad press and this pizza is a nightmare to sell. But I refuse to back down as it's one of my all time favourites and I've yet to meet anyone who hasn't enjoyed it having given it a try. There's something about the way the sprout leaves char at the edges and the combination with pancetta or smoked bacon is an all time classic.

I first had this pizza at Motorino as part of our New York pizza tour but you can get it much closer to home from ourselves or the excellent Honest Crust who are also staunch advocates of sprouts on a pizza.

Ingredients

Sourdough base

Mozzarella

Slithers of garlic
Sprout leaves
Smoked bacon or pancetta

Olive oil

Extra prep?

Some people mandolin the sprouts to get the slices fine enough, we just use the leaves and follow the approach almost verbatim from the Slice blog, here's how.

Bertha's in Bristol

Honest Crust in Altrincham

What I'd do differently
Find a way to get more people to order it, they're missing out.

Top That: Roast Chestnut and Rosemary

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."

Probably the last thing you want to hear in January but trust me it's preferable to my tax return so let's catch up on a couple of toppings which went down well last month.

Ingredients

Sourdough base

Mozzarella

Roasted chestnuts, shelled and chopped

Rosemary

Extra prep?

There's an art to shelling chestnuts, one I've yet to acquire even after tackling 3kgs of the little critters. Make sure you work on them while they're hot though, this reduced the frequency of cuts under my nails and toned down the colourful language.

What I'd do differently
It needs a grind of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil to finish but really not much else. The smell of this pizza alone makes it worth a try even if you have to wait until next year.

Comfort Zones

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It’s over a year since I travelled 5000 miles to work at Pizzicletta, where did that go?

Back then I still had the day job and was about to take a leap out of my comfort zone to start our own business. Fast forward a year and I find myself at River Cottage with a badge labelled ‘chef’ consulting for an oven builder. Now I’m the last person to describe myself as a chef, cook is generous and baker more accurate but thankfully the owner of the best pizzeria in NYC once told me you don’t have to be a chef to make amazing pizza. In fact it helps if you’re not.

It’s been an incredible summer

Our first season with the Berthamobile went better than we could have ever hoped. Thank you. I really mean that. It was a pleasure to continue our series meeting suppliers and finally make it over to the Isle of Wight to see where our tomatoes come from. We'll be updating the website over the coming weeks with pictures from the summer and some very talented friends - take a bow Tim Griffiths.

Glutton for punishment

With the rhythms of the mobile business becoming familiar we’re once again stepping outside of our comfort zone. This time a leap - into the world of bricks and mortar, long term leases and scary restaurant fit out costs. But the passion’s there. It’s driving us.

Gluten for pleasure

Back at the development kitchen [read domestic] we’ve continued to tinker with our dough and through an anal system of logging, notes and gradual iteration we’ve taken a step closer to the pizza in my mind’s eye. Whilst there’s no such thing as a perfect pizza we’re committed to improving ours each day.

Currently we’re in a period of adjustment, which is why you won’t see us roaming the streets as often. We’re doing our best to juggle the mobile business alongside the restaurant plans and have several weekend dates in the diary, along with an exciting pop-up planned at Bristol’s sourdough mecca - Hart’s Bakery - on Friday 28th November. Full event schedule here.

Wobbles

It was always our aim to be candid throughout this process and my respect grows each day for all those who’ve ventured down this path. Kate’s back in London mid-week which pays the bills but adds to the strain. I flip between euphoric excitement and overwhelming despair depending on the latest fun and games with the agents. But it’s the vision that keeps us going - of a modest neighbourhood restaurant serving the best pizza in Bristol and beyond, that and our home cured bacon.

Everyone should cure their own bacon.

Charity shop trousers

“Just to confirm…”

Never the best start to an email.

It was 12:30 and we were mid way through a busy lunch service in the middle of summer. A beautiful day to be stood anywhere but the mouth of a 500º oven. I was wearing shorts.

“… no shorts will be permitted onsite”

A building site.

I’d been chasing for a viewing for months, our allotted slot fell between a lunch and dinner service but the dress code caught me by surprise. A building site with a dress code.

As the last lunch order hit the spike I headed to the viewing, charity shop on route and I was the proud owner of some M&S Blue Harbour trousers several sizes too big, £4.50 including the tissue in the pocket.

I made the viewing and we’ve placed an offer. If all goes to plan the trousers are going on the wall.

We’ll have no dress code.

The Tomato Stall Visit - Isle of Wight

Pizza's simple. Good ingredients on good bread. We're proud to source our tomatoes from the lovely people at The Tomato Stall on the Isle of Wight. Ripened on the vine, picked at their peak, with varieties selected for flavour not yield - what's not to love.

Here's a short film on our trip to the sunniest part of the UK:

The Tomato Stall Visit - Isle of Wight from BerthasPizza on Vimeo.

DO(UG)H!

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Everyone loves the summer

At least that's what I used to think but it turns out I was wrong. Our dough hates it.

With ‘cold’ tap water above 22ºC and night temperatures remaining in the 20s there's been nowhere to hide. We’ve always walked the tightrope of longer proofing times, pushing the ferments further so the gluten breaks down into something that’s equally delicious as digestible, but when the temperature rises it’s hard not to have a few wobbles. Acidity increases, degradation accelerates and you’re left cradling each dough ball like a newborn.

Tweak, test, iterate, adapt
 

The easy way out would have been to switch to commercial yeast, drastically cut the ferment times and hope most wouldn’t notice but where’s the fun in that. Out came the textbooks, academic papers on microbial specific growth rates and numerous chats with some of the best in the business. Particular thanks to the Harts Bakery team and Emily Buehler, the author of the brilliant and aptly named Bread Science book. In a nod to my previous life as an engineer I also swapped the temperature controller of a chest freezer so we have a giant chest fridge / proofing chamber. Never before have I got so excited about white goods.

Bertha to the rescue

And then the weather changed again, Hurricane Bertha blew through and it’s 5 degrees cooler. Percentages and timings have changed once again, but at least this feels more familiar territory. Regardless we’re in a much better place now, we understand more, we appreciate more. We're ready for the sun again.

So what else has been going on

Well we’re finally Bristol residents and enjoying a regular spot at Temple Quay Market. To the loyal customers who’ve visited on every appearance - thank you - as promised we’ll be serving up your favourite with fresh cherries, gorgonzola and smoked bacon this Thursday.

We went foraging with Chris of Heavenly Hedgerows, July might be known as hungry month but we came back brimming with ideas, first up to try will be a bianca sausage pizza finished with wild mustard flowers, who fancies that?

If all that wasn’t enough we also found our way onto the front of The Landy Magazine, in their words ‘the tastiest 110 of all time’  and who are we to argue.

We’re heading to Southville

On the 31st August we will be making our debut at the Tobacco Factory Sunday market. We’ve been big fans of this buzzing market for some time so it’ll be great to finally be a part of it.

Starting in September we'll also be firing up at the Hungry Caterpillar play cafe to provide pizzas at lunchtime and into the evening. 

"So where's your restaurant?"

This is the second most popular question we're asked after "did you trade at Glastonbury" - we didn't, although our mozzarella does come from a farm there. As for the restaurant we've started the process of looking at potential spaces - who'd like a wood fired sourdough pizza joint down their road?

Heavenly hedgerows indeed

Moving house is stressful, moving a house come pizzeria more so. But what better antidote than a stroll in the countryside, particularly if it’s brought to life by a true naturalist (I’m hoping that’s an expert in fauna and flora rather than someone with a liberal attitude to clothing). Cue Chris of Heavenly Hedgerows, we’ve long been a fan of her range of wild produce and keen to expand our foraged toppings she was gracious enough to let us tag along for a walk.

July’s known as the hungry month but there was plenty to see and learn, Chris’ enthusiasm is contagious. It was fascinating to hear the histories, from pineapple weed - yes it really does smell of pineapple - which was introduced to Kew Gardens only to escape around the country on the soles of shoes, to the mallow plant with its edible pink flowers - the origin of marshmallows. It's fair to say my interest in plants is biased by what's edible and the culinary highlight was a wild mustard, I'd have mistook it for rapeseed, but the bright yellow flowers with a mustard kick would be the perfect way to finish a white base, sausage pizza.

After our stroll in the sun we returned to Heavenly Hedgerow HQ to cook up what we'd found. I failed miserable to recall the names of our bounty, but I’ll put that down to the volume of information in such a sort period, not my appalling memory. Chris and family share their home - well garden - with 7 hives, close to a million bees on her doorstep and it turns out Chris is afraid of bees. Now that's dedication, it'd be like me being afraid of flour.

Heavenly hedgerows can be found at the following stockists and I'd wholeheartedly recommend her foraging walks: