Delici O's pizza bases - 17/06/14 and 18/06/14

(Yeah I had pizza two days in a row. Only Jesus can judge me.)

Assembling pizzas with your own chosen ingredients is a pretty fun activity, so I did it a couple of times last week (also I was moving out of my uni house and had limited resources so I had to get rid of all my veg and cheese). I did so using Delici O's wholemeal pizza bases which I bought because they were on special in Tesco, but they actually turned out to be pretty good.

The sauce u see used here is that of my own recipe (passata/tomato puree/garlic/Italian herbs/stir), and the toppings are Mozzarella Style Cheezly (big up 2 this prince of vegan cheeses), mushrooms, green peppers and garlic oil which I concocted by squidging some garlic puree into a lil bit of olive oil. On one of the two occasions when I ate this pizza, I also added a chopped Linda McCartney sausage which gave proceedings a nice (fake) meaty texture:

The real point of this particular pizza post I guess is to talk about the Delici O's bases. Good news is that they are entirely vegan, and also they are very thin and crispy so if that's your bag then go forth and eat. I also like very much that you can get different variations of these bases - you can buy ones which have been made with either plain or wholemeal flour, and you can also buy mini ones which is cute. Slightly not so good news is that the texture was not my favourite - the outer crust in particular was crumbly in an almost pastry-like way. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted dope, but it was not a strictly pizza-y texture.

To be honest, pre-made pizza bases are never gonna be the holy grail just by their very nature (they don't have proper crusts, for one), but they do often make for a fun and satisfying lil meal. They're also pretty great if you have certain dietary stuff going on that regular pre-made pizzas don't cater for, because they mean that you can still have pizza, but just the way you want it, rather than having to compromise. Delici O's did the job for sure.

Pizza rating: 7/10

Pizza Artisan, Oxford - 11/06/14

"Some pizzas are born great. Others have greatness thrust upon them." 

- ancient proverb

It has now been a while since I ate from Oxford's elusive Pizza Artisan truck, but I still remain as impressed as I was when I took that fateful first bite. I'm going to cut to the chase: this is hands down the best pizza experience in Oxford, and it rivals every London hype pizza joint I've visited, like, ever. It's as good and as fresh as pizza I ate in New York. Yeah, I said it. 

This was my second Pizza Artisan experience: the first was on a rainy evening at some point during my first year of university. This one was markedly better, 'cause the weather was gorgeous and the service was hella quick. For those unfamiliar with the Pizza Artisan mythology (get out tbh), the set up is as follows:

Most evenings from 7pm, a big shiny silver food truck appears outside Christ Church college on St. Aldate's in Oxford. However, this is not yr usual university town kebab meat fare: this van is a purveyor of the finest pizza in the land, with a menu which defies its tiny size in order to compete with the very best around. Both veggie and meat options abound, and each pizza is lovingly crafted by hand inside the van, and set to bake in its specially installed pizza oven. Obviously, when you're eating pizza this fresh, it's going to taste pretty fucking sexy. 

Olivia's margherita

Accompanied by my pizza pal Olivia, I ordered a Shiva (roasted red peppers, olives, mushrooms, green chillies) without the cheese, and Olivia got a margherita which you can see above. All of the Pizza Artisan pizzas also come with a generous helping of salad leaves (rocket and spinach), and a drizzling with the oil of your choice - I had garlic, Olivia opted for olive.

Needless to say, these pizzas were d o p e. Made carefully to order, each pie is clearly a labour of love, even during busy periods. The toppings are of an incredibly high quality (check out those mozzarella globs!), and the base treads the perfect balance between soft and crispy. All of my vegetables were totally delicious, and there was also no shortage of sauce which I really appreciated, 'cause the Pizza Artisan sauce is delicious and I'd drink it like Coca Cola for realsies. 

I feel like, for this Pizza Artisan visit, the stars really aligned: our food was ready quickly, and we waited for it in the beaming sun; we also ate outside in the super cute surroundings of Christ Church Meadow, and the pizza tasted fresh and delicious. I can't really think of much else that I would want from a pizza visit, and so for that reason a restinpizza first is about to happen: 

Pizza rating 10/10

If you're in Oxford this summer, do yourself a favour and visit your new best mates at Pizza Artisan. You will thank me, I swear. 

P.S. - s/o to Danny for suggesting that I go to this place on the very day I was planning on going. Some spooky shit, hunty.

Pizza Artisan
Christ Church, St. Aldate's, Oxford
http://www.pizzaartisan.co.uk

The Rusty Bicycle, Oxford - 7/6/2014

I'm leaving Oxford for summer soon (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so before I go away for a few months I'm trying to hit as many local pizza spots as possible. What it may lack in fun stuff and people who actually understand the real world, Oxford sure makes up for in good pizza places. 

The Rusty Bicycle which is a cool lil pub about 3 minutes from my house in East Oxford is no exception. I'm pretty sure they have only recently started doing pizza, but you probably wouldn't notice. Their menu is varied and affordable, and best of all, first on their list is a vegan pie with actual toppings (Franco Manca, take note u guys) - I had their "Vegan Mary" pizza, which has on it black olives, chopped garlic and fresh rocket, and it was delectable for realsies.

What I really liked about this pizza was the base. It's a sourdough crust, which I would usually not feel too sure about, but having given it a shot, I can confidently say that it really works (lol I sound like I'm on an infomercial for a hair loss product). It's super thin and crispy, and the slices held up well even though they looked like they wouldn't. The outside crusts were a little thicker compared to the inner base, and I was especially into how chewy they were because it meant that there was a sort of variety of textures which I was all about.    

Also also, I would like to invite you to look at the picture of this pizza and how huge it is, and then think about the fact that it only cost £6. The ingredients tasted like they were of nice quality, and I was really surprised at the size for the price. It was super good value and the pizzas with cheese and stuff were also pretty reasonably priced so I don't know maybe you should go get dinner at The Rusty Bicycle or something I mean I'm not trying to force you or anything but I just really do think it would be in your best interests. Also I think on most weekdays pizzas are half price at lunchtime (they do burgas and other bar food too!) So now you need no excuse. 

Pizza rating: 7.5/10

The Rusty Bicycle

28 Magdalen Road, OX4 1RB

http://www.therustybicycle.com

pitta pizza party - 5/6/2014

Sometimes in order to get people to read the stuff I write about dough with tomatoes on, I post the link to new blog entries on my Facebook. Last time I did this - for the pizza bagels post a few weeks ago - I was LITERALLY INUNDATED (four people commented) with suggestions for the next bread I should turn into a pizza. The victor was pitta bread, and as I was a pitta pizza novice until last night, my pals Hector and Lu came over to give me a hand in undertaking this complex transformation of mere bread to delicious meal. Essentially this was the pizza equivalent to the bit in She's All That when Evan Rachel Wood takes her glasses off, shedding her plain Jane exterior, and wears a tight dress in order 2 fulfil her destiny as a complete betty. Pitta pizza is also a betty.

So first of all we started by making some pizza sauce. Same ingredients as the ones for the sauce in the bagel post, except we added oregano too. It tasted good.

Then Hector, as the resident pitta pizza expert (his mum makes them for him when he goes home from uni in the holidays), performed the most crucial part of the operation - carefully slicing the pittas down the side so you end up with two flat bits per pitta, rather than two stubby halves like usual, say if you were putting the pitta in the toaster.

Hector was super stoked to be cutting some pitta bread. It is his calling.

Then we chopped some veg (I think we had mushrooms, peppers, red onion, black olives, courgettes, chillies and sundries tomatoes), spread the sauce over the pittas which were lined up on baking trays wrapped in foil, topped them (I just had veg, Hector and Lu also had torn mozzarella which seemed like a cool touch), and put them in the oven to bake for around ten minutes at about 160 degrees (my oven gets very hot very quickly though, so maybe adjust that for your own appliances). But not before I had the chance to take some incredibly obnoxious A Level Art-lookin' photos:

What I liked about pitta pizzas as opposed to the other breads I have experimented with in the past was that they give you room for lots of toppings, which is something that bagels and crumpets just cannot do. Also, their thinness is gr8 if you're about that crispy base life (I am), because as long as you cook them correctly in the oven (i.e. don't let them burn), they'll crisp up really nicely so that you get a p satisfying crunch when you bite into them. They are also surprisingly substantial, in that they're filling (we had these for dinner, but we did use Tesco's large pittas rather than regular sized ones) and also that they're real sturdy - as you can see they have quite a lot of toppings on them and they held up to that pressure well. I think pitta bread would do well on The Cube. When they came out of the oven, they looked like this:

which is, clearly, completely dope. 

So yeah, those are pitta pizzas, and they are probably the best bread I have Queer Eye For The Straight Guy'd so far. They taste great - the base is crispy and the toppings we used were all delicious and didn't make the bread soggy or droopy or anything. Making them was also a really fun thing to do with palz (shout out to Hector and Lucy for coming to help out) so I would recommend that u have a pitta pizza party of yr own sometime soon.

Pizza rating: 9/10