Truth be told, I find entertaining based around anything that involves fire and smoke some of the best entertaining you can do! Fire and smoke bring out a certain deep-seeded nostalgia in people that we seldom get to relive in our day to day routines and a wood-fired oven accomplishes that perfectly. In this segment, we’re in beautiful Barcelona, Spain where the trees are just starting to turn green, the mimosa’s in full bloom and the temperature is just perfect for an early spring smoking party.

With the help of some close friends and using the Fornetto, I decided to smoke a 6 kilo (13 pound) ham. In preparation, I first glazed it with orange, cloves, tamarind and maple syrup before smoking it for three hours. The results were amazing!

Juicy, tender and succulent. Click here for the recipe and method!

Smoking is not a typical practice in the south of Europe as meats and fish are fresh year round. As Europe has become border-free and cultures are mixing, smoked foods are becoming more and more available in the south and tastes are developing for what the North has enjoyed for millennia!

Smoking has always been more prevalent in Northern European countries as it was once used as a way to preserve meats and fish for the long winter months. That being said however, smoked food is being adopted by Southern Europeans as it becomes a more common practice and the Iberian pork of Spain CANNOT be beat!

As the guests anticipate the first bite, the Fornetto Oven cools in the background, waiting for its next assignment!

My dear friend David, originally from Mexico, carves any roast like a pro!

The line-up begins and the crowd looks pleased!

Smoking is a technique that dates back to the time of primitive hunters. After having returned home from a hunt, the men would hang the meat to dry in the caves or simple huts that they lived in.

As these dwellings had no source of ventilation and would become extremely smoky, these early hunters quickly learnt that the meat that hung close to the fire and smoke both tasted better and were better preserved than the meat that was simply hung up to dry.

Every good roast, smoked or not, needs a side or two. Scroll further for great side ideas!

Any fresh cruciferous vegetables work well in this recipe. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale or Brussels’ sprouts to name a few.

Super cheesy brocoli, cauliflower and kale casserole with bread crumb and Grana Padano cheese topping. This casserole makes a great side to any roast! 

The techniques for smoking have naturally evolved over time as have the appliances, such as wood-fired ovens. Traditionally, in the Western world, farms would have a smokehouse in which large quantities of meat and fish could be smoked. In Asia, a large wok would be used to smoke tea.

These days smokers for domestic use, such as the Fornetto, are becoming more and more available. The use of different woods for smoking vary greatly from region to region as well, from fruit-tree woods such as cherry and apple to oak and alder in Europe.

The traditional use of mesquite and hickory are typically North-American whereas the use of manuka (tea tree) is predominantly used in New-Zealand for smoking fish. Interestingly enough, however, burning wood is not the only source of flavourings for smoked foods. In China, dry rice, sugar, and tea are burnt to flavour foods.

Peat moss is commonly used to smoke the barley malt to make whiskey and certain beers. Iceland boasts burning sheep dung as the flavouring of choice yet I remain reticent!

Yet another great side dish for any roast, yellow rice with cherry tomatoes.

Click here for my signature yellow rice recipe!

How we prepare our foods prior to smoking has changed significantly. The original process of salting or salt-water brining before smoking pre-cures foods and readies them for storage once smoked. This technique combined with exposing the foods to long periods of smoking, up to several days, in fact, ensures proper curing. Although this approach is still widely used, there are three methods that are more commonly used at home:

• Cold smoking involves cooking the foods first and then exposing them to smoke for flavouring in a relatively cool environment, 20 to 30 °C (68 to 86 °F). This results in foods that are rich in smokey flavour yet retain their moisture. Foods that are cold-smoked must be cooked first as cold smoking does not cook or cure meats, fish or poultry, however, it is the technique that should be used for smoking cheese for an obvious reason; its low melting point. (We will examine cold smoking more closely in a future post.)
• Hot smoking requires the foods to be subjected to moderate heat, 52 to 80 °C (126 to 176 °F) as well as hot smoke which cooks the food at the same time as it’s being smoked. Hot smoking fully cooks the foods ready for consumption directly from the smoker. The moderate temperature not only cooks the food but prevents it from losing moisture and rendering its fat. This is important for foods that require a certain fat content to remain palatable, such as smoked salmon or bacon.
• Smoke roasting / baking is any technique where foods are cooked and smoked at temperatures exceeding those of hot smoking. Examples of these are barbecuing over charcoal or wood, tandoor cooking or pit roasting. Since the temperature used for this technique is quite high and cooks very quickly, this method of smoking creates foods with the least amount of smokey flavour.

Note: When smoking cured or raw meat, fish or poultry remember to always allow it to form a pellicle, a slightly tacky (not slimy) layer of protein on the surface of the food you’re smoking.

Times will vary based on if the foods are raw, have been cured or depending on if it’s meat, fish or poultry. A good rule of thumb is to do so uncovered, on a rack in the fridge overnight. Fish, for example, creates a pellicle quite quickly whereas meats and poultry take longer.

A proper pellicle on the food that’s about to be smoked is what will ensure adhesion of the smoke and will determine the amount of smoky flavour and colour it absorbs. It equally acts as a protective barrier that will ensure your food doesn’t dry out during the smoking process.

A great tip if using the Fornetto smoking chips is to allow them to soak directly in the waterproof bag. I always keep one bag humid and one dry as I like to top off the smoldering chips with fresh, dry chips for a final burst of instant smoky flavour. Click on the picture for more information on the Fornetto smoking chips.

Tip: If using wood chips, such as Fornetto brand smoking chips, remember that for optimum results, soaking them for about an hour prior to introducing them into the combustion chamber will produce a slower burn and maximum smoke.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

Pizza is famous the world over and comes with the most basic toppings like the original Neapolitan Pizza Margherita with tomato sauce, basil and cheese to luxury toppings such as caviar and foie gras. However, no matter how you like your pizza, simple and delicious or elaborately gourmet, the basics for a great pizza don’t change; a wood-fired pizza oven, very high heat, yeasty dough, great toppings and a healthy appetite! Pizzas don’t only come flat either, they can be topped and then folded over to make an Italian Calzone or Panzarotti.

Even topped, rolled up and then baked to make an American Stromboli. These days pizza comes in so many forms as well, deep-dish, stuffed-crust and pizza bites to name a few and no matter how you slice it, pizza is undoubtedly one of the most popular foods there are.

Simply delicious! Pizza Margherita from the pizza capital of the world. Click for the recipe.

Smoked salmon pizza with fresh dill and sour cream. Click for the recipe.

Our Fornetto mini-pizza stone competition came to a close a couple of weeks ago and we would like to thank everyone for submitting their recipes and photos. We would also like to congratulate our top three participants for their creative efforts, they will all be receiving a set of our Fornetto mini-pizza stones.

Terresa Emo from Ontario, Canada takes third place with her chocolate chip and orange dessert mini-pizzas and Kim Davies of Warwickshire, England comes in as runner-up with her seafood quiche tartlets. There are however times when not only a great recipe counts but the commitment one makes towards winning. Our first place winner, takes his recipes very seriously and is an avid user of the Fornetto wood-fired oven. Not only did he submit a tasty entry but has WOW’d us at Fornetto with his dedication to outdoor cooking and his love of wildlife photography. Mr. Piet Venter of Kimberley, South Africa takes the cake with a decadent three meat, two cheese, saucy pizza topped off with a special South African ingredient……..the Peppadew® (Capsicum Baccatum), now available internationally.

Mr. Piet Venter’s winning pizza recipe. Click to see more.

Mr. Venter is a retired mechanical engineer that worked in the mines of the Northern Cape for the past 25 years and who now resides in Kimberley, the diamond capital of the world, about 450Km (280 miles) from Johannesburg. It’s not hard to see that his hobbies are cooking and photography with particular attention to nature and wildlife. To ensure that he can use his Fornetto wood-fired oven whenever he pleases given any weather condition, he’s built a lapa (a South-African structure that consists of a thatched roof that’s supported by wooden poles. Lapas are commonly used as semi-open entertainment areas similar to that of a gazebo). He’s installed the Fornetto in the lapa with a brick chimney for smoke ventilation as seen in the photographs. “I am very happy with the results from the Fornetto and enjoy using it very much!” he proclaims.

Inside Mr. Venter’s lapa is his built-in Fornetto wood-fired oven and smoker. This is a serious man when it comes to outdoor cooking!

Ever wonder how a pizza gets to you so quickly in a pizzeria with a wood-fired oven?

High heat is key to cooking a great pizza, in fact the True Neapolitan Pizza Association (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, AVPN) states that it must be cooked in a stone oak-fired pizza oven at 905°F (485°C) for no longer than one to one and a half minutes. Ceramic pizza stones replicate the floor (cooking area) of the real Roman dome style wood-fired oven where the heat is off to one side and the floor becomes extremely hot, cooking a thin crust pizza without burning it in a matter of seconds.

Some people prefer the use of a pizza pan or combination of a pizza pan and a pizza stone and get great results, where I on the other hand prefer to cook pizza directly on the stone. The choice is really up to you. What isn’t up to you however is the heat.

High-heat is key to cooking great pizza. With very high heat the dough cooks quickly on the outside while retaining moisture on the inside, this is what makes a great pizza crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and deliciously fragrant.

By burning pure hardwood or a mixture of hardwood and lump hardwood charcoal (such as Fornetto’s Premium Lump Charcoal), I manage to bring the temperature inside the Fornetto to the 662°F (350°C) mark and my pizzas cook in about three minutes directly on the pizza stone.

YOU’RE IN FOR A TREAT. ENJOY!

A warm sun, a fresh sea breeze off turquoise waters and fishermen returning with their catch of the day. Narrow winding cobblestone streets, bright red flowers cascading from tiny balconies and the delicious smell of freshly baked bread cooling on a window sill. Mountainy slopes riddled with olive and fruit trees, grape vineyards as far as the eye can see and in a small rural village, the terraces abound with locals enjoying a drink on a warm Sunday afternoon. These are just some of the things that come to mind when I think of the Med. Pure joie de vivre!

Nestled deep inside this Majorcan village’s streets are local restaurants just waiting to be discovered.

European mountain vineyards; truly breath-taking! Wine, a staple in the Mediterranean diet.

Fresh ingredients are key in the Mediterranean, no matter what country!

In Europe and particularly in the Mediterranean region, a truly Romanesque practice is shopping for fresh produce on a daily basis. Going to the local outdoor market and picking out the best fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, artisanal cheeses and charcuteries is what Mediterranean culture is based upon; fresh and delicious food! It’s an absolute pleasure going to the market and being inspired for dinner by the bountiful wares the farmers and fishermen have brought to sell. In fact, the Mediterranean diet is a very heart healthy diet and boasts many benefits for our health, so many in fact that many people outside the region are adopting it as a healthy way of preparing meals for themselves and their families.

There’s nothing better than the smell of walking into a vegetable market!

Cheeses are abundant and cured meats are a delight!

This deliciously devilish garlic bread recipe will leave you and your guests wanting more. Click here for the recipe!

The principal aspects of this diet include a relatively high consumption of olive oil, legumes (such as beans and other pulses), unrefined cereals, large amounts of fruits and vegetables, moderately high amounts of fish rich in omega 3 (such as sardines and salmon), moderate amounts of dairy products (mostly cheeses and yogurt), and a small amount of meat; all accompanied by a modest amount of wine.

The diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary habits of the southern Europeans and northern Africans. On December 4, 2013 UNESCO recognised this style of eating as an intangible cultural heritage of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Morocco, Croatia and Cyprus. Olive oil contains very high levels of monounsaturated fats, oleic acid in particular, which studies suggest may be linked to a reduction in the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

There’s also irrefutable evidence that the antioxidants found in olive oil improve cholesterol regulation and reduce LDL cholesterol levels. There is a great deal written about the benefits of olive oil and all the other ingredients of a Mediterranean diet, including the wine! Reams of information credited to health and nutrition experts is abundant and can easily be found on the internet.

Rich in nutrients and combined with vitamin C-rich lemons and extra virgin olive oil in this simple recipe, artichokes are a delicious starter to any meal. Click here for the recipe!

Brunch, for most people is a combination of breakfast and lunch dishes and conjures up thoughts of mimosas, bacon, eggs, toast, bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, cocktail shrimp, roast beef and a selection of salads, not to mention a selection of baked goods and coffee or tea. More often than not, the typical time for brunch spans from about 11 o’clock in the morning to about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. However, on the Med, lunch only starts at 2 pm.

That being said, this article probably could have been titled as “lunch” however, as most people are not accustomed to having lunch at 2 pm, our latest recipes make for a delicious and light brunch for a lazy week-end afternoon, Mediterranean style!

Eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini are staples in the Mediterranean. Click here for our delectable eggplant and zucchini stacks loaded with tomato sauce and Italian cheeses.

The traditional cookware used in many Mediterranean households are earthenware or ceramic pots and shallow dishes, similar in size and shape to the Fornetto line of ceramics. In fact, the Fornetto oven’s ancestry dates back to ancient Rome with it’s roots deeply embedded in the Mediterranean and in years gone by, everything would have been cooked in wood-fired ovens or directly over open flame.

Nowadays, conventional ovens are by far much more common than traditional wood-burning ovens and fortunately, Fornetto’s line of ceramics perform excellently in the Fornetto oven as well as in conventional electric or gas ovens as demonstrated in our three latest recipes.

This is of particular interest if you live in a severe weather zone and getting to your Fornetto just isn’t possible. Our friends to the north have been bombarded by bad weather this winter, with record amounts of snow, wickedly cold temperatures in the negative double digits and even freezing rain storms. Equally dramatic, our friends to the south have had to endure shockingly hot temperatures. Therefore, come rain or shine, scorching heat or freezing cold, if you have invested in or are thinking of investing in Fornetto ceramics, you can rest assured that if you can’t get to your Fornetto oven or if you don’t have one yet, that they will work flawlessly in your conventional oven as well.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

Chili Con Carne has to be one of the most well known Tex-Mex dishes in the world. Nothing else says hearty and nourishing like chili does and it’s versatility is unbeatable; from a simple bowl of chili on a cold winter’s night to warm your body and soul, to a chili-dog or chili-fries on a warm summer’s day at a ballgame. Chili is definitely a dish to be enjoyed year-round!

Fresh ingredients make for a great chili!

There’s great controversy over what does and doesn’t belong in chili and whether adding certain ingredients actually changes the dish enough to change it’s name. A common ingredient that is pondered over is beans. Do beans actually belong in chili? Evidence does suggest that there isn’t anything unauthentic about the addition of beans to chill however, certain Texan aficionados will argue the fact that chili does not contain beans. Truth be told, Texas-style chill doesn’t contain beans and may not even contain any other vegetable at all for that matter, except chili peppers, onions and garlic! An interesting fact about chili is that it’s the official state dish of Texas and there are numerous competitions to boast best chill in the world. In fact, there’s even an International Chili Society that organises and judges chili competitions.

Black beans and red kidney beans. Delicious and full of protein. A great addition to any bowl of chili!

A recipe that has been in a close friend’s family since the Acadians were deported by the British from the maritime provinces in Canada to Lousiana and Texas has evolved greatly over the years. The truth is that it most assuredly didn’t even start out as chili but has evolved into a delicious version of the dish. I love being creative in the kitchen so I’ve put my own spin on their original recipe that I will share with you……and YES, it does have beans!

Smokey and Sensational Chili – click link for full recipe!

Accompany your chili with guacamole and cornbread. Click on the links under the photographs to find the recipes

Homemade guacamole – click link for recipe!

Comforting cornbread – click link for recipe!

A rarely used method of preparing chili is in an earthenware pot in a wood-fired oven which adds another dimension to the dish. Ceramics are a far cry from being anything new to us as cookware. In fact, we have been using ceramics for about 20,000 years for cooking and we have been refining the process ever since. Shapes and sizes of earthen cookware vary widely across the globe and techniques for shaping and firing ceramic vessels do as well. The Chili Queens of 18th century San Antonio, Texas used to heat their chili over mesquite-flavoured wood fires in Mexican ceramic cauldrons. This got me thinking about the recipe and I decided to replicate the Chili Queen method of preparing the dish. I was even able to capture the smoky flavour added by a wood-fired oven.

Advances in the manufacture of ceramics have greatly improved the quality of the cookware that we use today. I’m a firm believer in quality and Fornetto’s range of unique and beautifully crafted ovenware and pizza stones are made using only top quality materials. The stoneware can be used in a wide range of temperatures to a maximum of 500°C (930°F) which gives you the versatility to create great tasting dishes in your wood-fired oven.

A great feature of their stoneware is that it’s highly resistant to thermal shock, which means you can take your dishes directly from your freezer to your pre-heated oven. In addition they have a high capacity to retain heat so that the food you prepare stays hotter for longer when it gets to the table. Whether you’re cooking chili, roasting a chicken or making a pizza, the range of stoneware has you covered. The entire selection of Fornetto cookware has been especially created to compliment any conventional or wood-fired oven. I like that their glossy “empire-red” glazed finish makes a bold statement on my table – whether I’m serving inside or out.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

Is your life non-stop and always on the go? Not always in the mood to make a full-course meal when you get home from work but there are hungry mouths waiting to be fed nonetheless? If you’ve answered yes then read on because I have you covered in this edition of our Fornetto blog!

Not only is this meal easy, satisfying and nutritious but clean-up is a breeze as well! The Fornetto bread cloche and the baking stone were used here, not just for cooking an entire roast dinner including dessert but for serving it as well.

A complete roast dinner in the cloche, an apple dessert with ice-cream on the baking stone and guess what; the dreaded clean-up after a dinner like this can now be a thing of the past. Not only that but the cloche makes a roast dinner so easy to prepare that it no longer needs to be reserved only for Sundays!

It’s as simple as what you see here for a full roast dinner for 4 from your Fornetto. Choose what you’d like to roast such as beef, chicken, pork or lamb and a selection of seasonal vegetables. Don’t forget your favourite herbs and spices. Click on the link for the recipe.

If you really are too busy to make a homemade stuffing feel free to buy a mix at the store. I’ve kept my recipe really basic with only 4 ingredients and it’s well worth the 5 minutes it takes to prepare! Click on the link for the recipe.

Apples, baked in puff-pastry with pecan crumble topping. Not hard to make and well worth your while after a long day at the office! Click on the link for the recipe.

A large meal on a Sunday afternoon traditionally has it’s roots firmly planted in most of Europe but a roast dinner has been well entrenched particularly in Britain and Ireland. Today, a Sunday roast is common place throughout most of the Anglosphere and many other non-British or Irish influenced countries have adopted the tradition as well. Customarily, in Yorkshire, England, preparing a cut of meat and placing it in a slow oven before leaving for church service in the morning is still done today.

The roast would then be just about ready to eat when the family arrived back home after church and leaving just enough time to prepare the sides. This meal has always been a laborious undertaking as preparing all the sides to coincide with the roast to ensure that everything was still hot when served was no easy feat however, with modern day inventions such as the microwave, heating up side-dishes such as roast potatoes is quite simple. Yet that doesn’t mean that all those pesky pots and pans with burnt bits left behind on them don’t need a good soaking and scrubbing!

What’s unique about roasting in a cloche is that it allows for dry air to circulate. Unlike a stew pot or a tajine that once is filled and the lid is placed over it creates a seal that keeps dry oven air out completely and only allows steam to escape through the top as needed. So how does this pertain to cooking in the cloche and what exactly does it all mean? The bread cloche has a shallow baking dish and a large domed lid of the equal circumference that meets the sides.

Stew pots come with a lid that’s slightly smaller and that’s meant to fit inside the rim of the base. As the meat and vegetables begin to cook inside a dry cloche, steam is created and is condensed inside the lid returning it to the bottom dish, this is where the “jus” will form without the addition of any outside liquids. This “jus” created from the meat and vegetables seasoned with herbs and spices make for an ideal gravy! As the temperature rises more steam is created inside the cloche and is released at the sides as needed.

At the same time, as the steam is circulating inside the dome, hot dry air is pulled through the sides and over the roast and vegetables, allowing them to brown while retaining all of their natural juices. This convection phenomenon does not happen with a dish that does not allow dry air to circulate.

Because of this, the cloche is ideal and succeeds at cooking a roast dinner and making excellent bread, whereas a vessel that seals dry oven air out would fail.

With all of your roast dinner ingredients in the bread cloche simply cook for one and a half hours covered and a half hour uncovered at 170 ℃ (350℉). Roasting times will vary depending on size and type of meat.

Uncovering your roast for the last half an hour of cooking will crisp up the outside of your roast, finish browning the vegetables and reduce the liquid in the bottom to a delicious gravy. You should baste the roast and vegetables at this point and again 15 minutes later. 

Once you remove the roast from the oven, put your dessert in to bake. Remove 40 minutes later when it’s golden brown as above and serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Quarter chicken leg with stuffing and roasted vegetables from the Fornetto bread cloche. Click on this link for the recipe.

Apple crumble puff pastry tart done perfectly on the Fornetto baking stone. Ready by the time you finish your roast. A dollop of vanilla ice-cream and caramel and you’re in business! See recipe at this link.

It seems to me that the hustle and bustle high-speed lifestyle that many of us lead today, between picking up the kids from school or sports practice and finishing off deadlines at work, has a lot of us out there looking for no-fuss, easy and complete meal ideas. The Fornetto ceramics make cooking, serving and clean-up a breeze. And remember, if you don’t yet own a Fornetto, the line of ceramics are ideal for use in your conventional electric or gas oven as well.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

There’s something to be said about any appliance that can hold heat like the Fornetto! It’s really amazing that you can cook an entire dinner and then start the next day’s dinner with the residual heat left over; which is exactly what I did.

Perfect pulled-pork cooked overnight only using the residual heat in the Fornetto. A great option when long, slow-cooking is required and there’s no need to monitor or control the heat.

The method is quite simple in fact. When preparing something in the Fornetto that requires a high temperature, such as pizza for example, have the pork prepared ahead of time so as that it’s ready to go in the oven when you’e done making the pizzas. Simply place it in your stew pot, cover it with cold water and season with salt, black peppercorns, bay leaves and any of your favourite herbs or spices; I like dry mustard or mustard seeds but you can use anything as long as you keep with the same flavours that are in your barbecue and “mop” sauce (we’ll talk about those shortly). Be sure to refrigerate it as you want it to go into the oven cold.

Since the cut of meat you are going to be using is very thick, be it a shoulder blade roast, Boston butt or bone-in leg roast, seasoning it at this stage of the game will ensure that flavour reaches the inside of the meat, which will be appreciated by those that don’t like to slather their pork in sauce. For pulled-pork, I prefer the leg (I use a 5 kg / 11 lbs roast that fills the stew pot perfectly) but feel free to use whichever cut you prefer.

Once anything that requires high-temperature cooking is done and your oven is still very hot (around the 350 °C (660 °F)) place a rack in the lowest position and put the chilled stew pot in the oven. Close the door and forget about it for the next eight hours. Overnight is easiest to avoid the temptation of opening and closing the door to check the progress. Trust me, it’ll be fine. If you feel the need, you can place a drip pan in the bottom in case it boils over at any point.

Here’s what you’ll end up with the next day; a small portion of the water will have evaporated and the pork will have very lightly browned on the surface.

It’s at this stage that you’ll want to remove the pork from the stew pot. This is the right time to test that the pork is tender and cooked through. Break off a small piece to make sure that it shreds easily. If not, return the pork in the stew pot to a low oven for further cooking.

Be extremely gentle and remove the pork using forks, spatulas or tongs. It often takes four hands as the pork is literally falling off the bone at this point but you want to keep it as together as possible. Heat your Fornetto to 100 °C (210 °F).

Place the pork in a roasting dish and keep it to one side while the oven is heating. Reserve the liquid from the pork for making a delicious French Canadian yellow split-pea soup with bacon and carrots, for example. Just don’t discard it as that would be a crime! 

Now, holding true to any great pulled-pork recipe, you’ll want to prepare your “mop” sauce (basting sauce) and your barbecue sauce. There’s of course controversy over what sauces should be used on pulled-pork depending on where you’re from however, these are my sauces and can of course be substituted with whichever ones you may prefer, there’s nothing written in stone here. Recipe for the mop sauce is here.

Using a cotton bottle mop or a basting brush, ensure that the “mop” sauce covers all the meat and place it in the hot oven, basting it every 20 minutes or so for about an hour and a half to two hours. Don’t move any pieces that have broken away, baste them as is and let the marinade and flavours infuse into the meat.

When the pork is back in the oven, you can decide at this point whether or not to smoke it as well. I personally love the smokey flavour so I smoke mine for the entire two hours. As I’m demonstrating a way of preparing pulled-pork using the residual heat in the Fornetto versus the long, low-temperature smoking method, I don’t want to miss out on any of the smokey flavour the oven can deliver.

You’ll know it’s done when it’s a beautiful golden brown. A side note about the ceramics; I use these a lot and I have never, ever, in all of my experience, come across dishes that absolutely nothing sticks to and that are as easy to clean. Honestly!

Place it on a chopping block and prepare to start “pulling”! Begin by removing the bone. It will slip clean away from the roast.

Using a couple of forks, simply pull the pork apart. It’ll shred all on its own!

I like using the leg roast for a very specific reason. Similar to a chicken’s light and dark meat, the leg has two different types of meat as well; soft, moist meat similar to the dark meat found on poultry and longer fibres similar to breast meat. This gives your guests the option.

Serve your pulled-pork dripping with sauce and ready for heaping onto a bun………

……or, allow your guests to decide how saucy they’d like it. Click here for my pulled-pork BBQ sauce recipe.

As a personal side note about the ceramics, I use them a lot and other than Fornetto’s I have never, ever, in all of my experience, come across dishes that absolutely nothing sticks to and that are so easy to clean. Honestly! If you don’t own any Fornetto cookware, I highly recommend their line of ceramics.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

Sausages have been around for at least centuries and more probably millennia when early humans are thought to have made a basic type of sausage using roasted intestine and stomach; leaving a bit to be desired as far as I’m concerned!

The sausages that we know of today can be traced at least as far back as ancient Greece where a written mention of sausages can be attributed to Homer in his work “The Odyssey”.

The above picture shows fresh sausages that being hot-smoked in the Fornetto. The process is long and slow, this is what ensures a full-bodied and robust smokey flavour. The lower the temperature in the oven and the longer the food you’re smoking is exposed to the smoke, the better. I’ll explain the full technique for hot-smoking below.

These are my fresh sausages (we will explore making fresh sausages shortly in another blog). For the moment, buy sausages that are mild (otherwise known as sweet) as you don’t want the spices they may contain clashing with the smokey flavour you’re wanting the oven to impart.

As I’ve mentioned, the key to hot-smoking anything properly in the oven is the temperature and the amount of time you allow your food to be exposed to the smoke. Let’s first take a look at how to smoke in the Fornetto using the smoker box and our wood chips.

There’s a lot of controversy over soaking your wood chips or not. In my opinion, it does make a difference but not for the reasons you may think. The truth of the matter is that dry wood doesn’t absorb much water except a very small amount over the surface. When you think of an oak wine barrel, the very same barrel the Fornetto chips are made of, wine is not seeping through the wood. The reality is that wood does not absorb water rapidly.

That being said, there’s a very good reason that I soak my chips before placing them in the smoker box. Fornetto’s wood chips are made from oak barrels that have contained three different types of liquids; red wine, cognac and muscatel. By soaking them prior to using them, the surfaces that contained those liquids lightly rehydrate. Once they are placed in the smoker box and put into the combustion chamber, the liquid evaporates before the wood burns. The water that evaporates contains the aroma of red wine, for example, that will flavour your food before the smoke even begins. You’ll want to soak your smoking chips for 20 minutes or so. In my opinion, anything over the 20 minute mark really won’t make much of a difference except you risk leaching the flavour out of the chips and pouring it down the drain! Click here for more information about the Fornetto smoking chips!

Add the moistened chips to the smoker box. Be sure to remove the smoker box before lighting the fire in the combustion chamber. This is really just for convenience at this point as there’s no problem with filling the smoker box while it’s hot however, this way it’s out of the way when lighting the fire.

You’ll want to fill the smoker box to about 3/4’s of the way full. Don’t over fill the box as you don’t want to smother the chips but rather encourage them to smoke. In order for them to smoke properly, they need oxygen.

Place the lid back over the box and wearing your protective gloves, hook the smoker box back onto the door of the combustion chamber and latch shut. Make sure that the smoker slider is open and that the flue is in the “smoke” position. The smoking chips will burn for about an hour or so. If you are going to hot-smoke for longer than an hour (as is the case in this post), be sure to soak your next batch in time to replace the spent chips.

Once the chips are exhausted, if you still want to continue hot-smoking remove the smoker box to a heat/fire resistant surface that you’ve placed close by and allow to cool with the lid off until it’s manageable. Use both hands for removal. When removing the smoker box, practice EXTREME CAUTION AND DILIGENCE as it becomes EXCEPTIONALLY HOT and can easily burn your hands. Keep out of the reach of small children.

Once cool enough to handle, pour the charcoal chips out of the smoker box and onto a piece of aluminium foil for easy disposal. Repeat the process from the beginning if you wish to continue smoking.

As I mentioned earlier, the temperature is key when hot-smoking. High temperatures cook too quickly and won’t allow the smoke sufficient time to impart its flavour. I practice the traditional hot-smoking technique of smoking at around 70C (160F) for a long period; 3 hours and longer depending on the size of what you’re cooking. Smoking at a temperature exceeding 85C (185F) defeats the objective of hot-smoking and converts it to smoke-roasting which in itself is another technique that melts fat and evaporates water too quickly; this would cause our sausages to shrink and split. What we want with hot-smoking is to partially replace the water content of the sausages slowly with their natural fats and to allow them to absorb the smoke flavour gradually. Hot-smoking is a slow cooking method that cooks meats thoroughly over a long period of time at a low temperature. If you’re cooking two levels of sausages, it’s important to switch the racks during the cooking process to allow both levels to cook evenly.

When the sausage has cooked on one side, remove the rack from the oven and flip the sausages over to allow them to brown on the flip side. You’ll notice that I use parchment paper. The reason for this is that I don’t want the skin on the sausage to stick to the rack which would tear on removal resulting in the loss of its juices. When the sausages have browned on both sides (about 3-4 hours at 70C (160F)) remove them from the oven.

The sausages can be enjoyed warm directly from the oven or they make great sandwiches and will keep in the fridge for about 4 days, if they even last that long!

Enjoy them with my homemade old-style grainy mustard and a cold beer. Easy to make and a delicious accompaniment to any smoked sausage. Click here for my homemade mustard recipe.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

From simple ingredients come great things! Italian cuisine is based on simplicity with most dishes containing only 4 to 8 ingredients. Italians rely on the quality and freshness of the goods they use in the preparation of their traditional dishes as opposed to the complexity that some other cuisines rely on, such as the Haute-Cuisine of France. Much of (though not all) Italian cuisine falls under the very healthy Mediterranean diet that concentrates on the use of olive oil, many varieties of fruits, vegetables and legumes, unrefined cereals, a high percentage of fish and dairy, and a low percentage of meat.

As simple as Italian cuisine is, for the most part, the frittata sticks to that tradition in its simplicity of ingredients and preparation. Not only that but the beauty of the frittata lies also in its incredible diversity when it comes to flavours and choice of ingredients. Allow me to explain what a frittata is exactly before I go any further.

A frittata is an Italian egg-based dish that is similar to an omelette though it differs in that the ingredients are mixed with the raw egg rather than being placed on top of a partially cooked thin layer of egg which is folded over before serving. It roughly resembles a quiche in how it’s prepared however, it lacks the pastry crust a quiche always has. The frittata probably has the most similarities to a Spanish omelette (Tortilla Española) in thickness and preparation however, the ingredients in a frittata are far more liberal and less traditional than those typically found in a Spanish omelette.

Similar to a Spanish omelette it can be prepared in a deep skillet over low heat and then transferred to the oven once the bottom has set or it can be baked in a pie dish from start to finish, similar to the Middle Eastern egg-dishes known as Kookoo or Ijjeh. The Fornetto pie dish seen in the image is ideal for a nice deep frittata and as is true with all egg-based dishes and baking, the benefit of the non-stick surface of the Fornetto ceramics is ideal. Click on the image to check out the pie dish!

Now knowing that a frittata is an egg-based dish one needs to ask themselves what ingredients they want to use to combine with the eggs for the “egg-cake”. Vegetables, cheeses, meats, and pasta are all variables and the choice is literally up to the person preparing it.

Keeping with a more traditional Italian flavour, one may use Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses in combination with Prosciutto ham and vegetables. On the flip side, you may choose to adapt a frittata to reflect flavours more traditional to your area by using Sharp cheddar and bacon or blue cheese and leek.

The possibilities are endless however, personally, what differentiates a frittata from any other omelette-type dish is the frequent use of pasta by the Italians. In my family, it was typically made with leftover cooked pasta with a mix of finely chopped seasonal vegetables ranging from Rapini or Broccoli Rabe to eggplant or broad beans and incorporating a strong cheese like Grana Padano and spicy Italian sausage.

Before beating your eggs vigorously, you’ll have to prepare your filling and allow it to cool to room temperature. While cooking the pasta and the ingredients remove the eggs from the fridge to allow them to warm up, as warm eggs beat better than cold eggs. Once the pasta and the veggie/meat ingredients have cooled they can be thoroughly combined and mixed with the beaten eggs.

The frittata should be baked in the Fornetto at 200C (390F) on the middle rack for about 30-40 minutes tented with tin foil for the first 20 minutes to stop browning on the surface.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. The frittata will slightly shrink and pull away from the sides.

While the frittata is cooling and the oven is still hot, roast your favourite vegetables to serve with the frittata. When roasting vegetables in the Fornetto in this manner I like placing them closer to the top position as the ceiling of cooking chamber acts as a broiler (salamander) really well and roasts from above perfectly.

When the frittata has cooled enough turn it out onto a pie plate and serve in wedges with the roasted vegetables. Click here for my complete vegetable and Italian Speck frittata recipe and preparation method!

Frittatas make an excellent dish to serve warm or at room temperature for brunch, lunch or for a picnic. Since you’ll be baking it in the center of the oven and at a temperature that is ideal for baking bread, you may want to contemplate baking a fresh country bread under the frittata on the baking stone at the same time to serve with it.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

My curiosity often gets the best of me. If I’m able to get professional guidance for something I’m not quite sure about doing, then I go for it! Very fortunately, our food photographer Margaret has some great contacts in the food industry. We managed to setup a meeting and tour with the owner of the Casa Boix (pronounced boy-sh) smokehouse, Jaume who was nice enough not only to give us a full and very in-depth tour of his facility but also let us in on some trade secrets that I’m going to share with you.

In this particular case I was quite interested in learning about how to smoke a whole side of bacon and how to cook the delicatessen style turkey breast they make. Having worked with this particular company’s great products in the past, I knew of their excellent quality and was quite keen on getting the tricks that the professional artisans use and then reproducing what I would learn using the Fornetto.

Step 1. The meat! Be it pork or turkey, the first step is imperative. This is the step where the proteins are broken down and a pellicle is formed. The manner in which it is performed at the smokehouse is by submerging it in a seasoned brine for 4 days, lightly massaging it on a daily basis until the 4 days are up. The salt not only acts as an antibacterial agent but flavours the meat and begins the curing process. The brining breaks down protein chains in the meat, rendering it more tender and ready for cooking or smoking. Once the meat has been prepared, it is hot-smoked or slow-cooked (depending on the end product) to retain the juices and minimise the amount of shrinkage. (Need some more info about pellicles and hot-smoking? See our “Smoking In Barcelona” post)

Step 2. Prepping for the oven. Once the brining process is complete, the meat is then trimmed of any excess fat or skin and is placed in plastic moulds as is the case with their turkey. Their brined pork is placed in metal moulds or muslin to make various ham products.

It takes practice to make perfect and the workers at Casa Boix are real perfectionists! It’s at this stage that the turkey breast seen above is placed in the oven.

When it comes to the ham products, the pork is set into metal moulds or muslin before being placed in the oven.

Once the ham comes out of the metal mould, it is packaged and ready for shipping.

Once the turkey breast is cooked, it can be removed from the plastic film that was holding its shape and can be placed in the smoker for cold-smoking (refer to the end of the post) or consumed as is.

Perfect turkey breast ready for a sandwich! The great thing about preparing turkey breast in this manner is that it’s extremely lean and an excellent source of protein!

Another technique that is used for making ham, more particularly smoked or roasted ham as seen above is to wrap it in muslin. This keeps the shape and allows the smoke to penetrate if being smoked. It also allows liquids to evaporate during the cooking process which makes for a drier style deli meat.

What we will look at in a couple of posts from now is the “how-to” process for making your own bacon and turkey breast deli meat in the Fornetto from scratch.

NOTE: How we prepare our foods prior to smoking has changed significantly. The original process of salting or salt-water brining before smoking pre-cures foods and readies them for storage once smoked. This technique combined with exposing the foods to long periods of hot-smoking, up to several days in fact, ensures proper curing. Although this approach is still widely used, there are three methods that are more commonly used at home:

• Cold smoking involves cooking the foods first and then exposing them to smoke for flavouring in a relatively cool environment, 20 to 30 °C (68 to 86 °F). This results in foods that are rich in smokey flavour yet retain their moisture. Foods that are cold-smoked must be cooked first as cold smoking does not cook or cure meats, fish or poultry however, it is the technique that should be used for smoking cheese for an obvious reason; its low melting point. (We will examine cold smoking more closely in a future post.)
• Hot smoking requires the foods to be subjected to moderate heat, 52 to 80 °C (126 to 176 °F) as well as hot smoke which cooks the food at the same time as it’s being smoked. Hot smoking fully cooks the foods ready for consumption directly from the smoker. The moderate temperature not only cooks the food but prevents it from loosing moisture and rendering its fat. This is important for foods that require a certain fat content to remain palatable, such as smoked salmon or bacon.
• Smoke roasting / baking is any technique where foods are cooked and smoked at temperatures exceeding those of hot smoking. Examples of these are barbecuing over charcoal or wood, tandoor cooking or pit roasting. Since the temperature used for this technique is quite high and cooks very quickly, this method of smoking creates foods with the least amount of smokey flavour.

When smoking cured or raw meat, fish or poultry remember to always allow it to form a pellicle, a slightly tacky (not viscous, unless they’ve been brined) layer of protein on the surface of the food you’re smoking. Times will vary based on if the foods are raw, have been cured or depending on if it’s meat, fish or poultry. A good rule of thumb is to do so uncovered, on a rack in the fridge overnight. Fish, for example, creates a pellicle quite quickly whereas meats and poultry take longer. A proper pellicle on the food that’s about to be smoked is what will ensure adhesion of the smoke and will determine the amount of smoky flavour and colour it absorbs. It equally acts as a protective barrier that will ensure your food doesn’t dry out during the smoking process.

Many thanks to the team at Casa Boix for opening their doors to us at Fornetto and to revealing some of their great techniques!

The title begs a question that has often made me wonder why certain restaurants and pasta boxes have different spellings for the same thing and quite honestly, until having done a bit of research for this blog I never took the time to look it up. That being said, and being an Italian speaker, the answer’s quite interesting not for its logical Italian grammatical differences, which did make sense to me, but rather for the geographical differences.

Naturally, both words are Italian and as such, the singular and plural forms change as is the case in most languages. In Italian, an “A” becomes an “E” and an “O” becomes an “I” in most cases. Therefore, lasagnE is the plural form of lasagnA just like spaghettI is the plural form of one strand of spaghettO.   

The dish itself in countries other than Italy is relatively young and was introduced by Italian immigrants mostly during the second half of the 20th century. Both the singular and plural forms of the word have had almost the same trajectory and have evolved in virtually the same way on all sides of all oceans. The interesting part is who uses which term and where. In the majority of the world the term “lasagne” is used, whereas in North America, the term “lasagna” usually outweighs its plural counterpart. If you wish to be accurate in your Italian however, the best term to use would be “lasagne” as it’s a dish made with multiple sheets of lasagna.

Traditional lasagne is a simple baked dish made with pasta and other ingredients such as cheese, béchamel and meat sauce although an uncountable number of variations have taken shape since its introduction to other parts of the world. What I’m going to show you here is not the traditional lasagne ascribed to Bologna but rather a common variation including ricotta cheese and mozzarella.

But, enough with the Italian grammar lesson and let’s take a look at what lasagne is. As most of us know, lasagne originated in Italy and is believed to be a Bolognese creation from the region of Bologna. The traditional lasagne is made using sheets of pasta in layers interspersed with béchamel, ragù (both of which we’ll see below) and Parmiggiano-Reggiano (Parmesan cheese). The variations of lasagne are countless the world over, from poultry and game lasagne to vegetarian and even lasagne without any tomato-based sauce!

CLICK HERE for the ragù recipe.

An ingredient we often see in lasagne is béchamel. Béchamel is an easy to make sauce made from a roux of butter and flour cooked in milk and seasoned with salt. When making béchamel it is very important not to darken or burn your roux (flour fried in butter) and to cook it over very low heat. If the roux is dark the béchamel will no longer be white in colour. It’s also important to keep it over low heat when adding your milk and to whisk it continuously, or you’ll end up with a lumpy, curdled mess instead of a smooth, white sauce.

CLICK HERE for the béchamel recipe.

Lasagne rises slightly as it’s being cooked and just wouldn’t be same if it didn’t bubble over the sides. The use of a drip pan in the bottom of the Fornetto oven, kamado or smoker is a very good idea when cooking a lasagne or any other casserole for that matter.

I bake my lasagne for about an hour and 45 minutes at 180C (350F), covered for the first hour and 15 minutes. The mozzarella cheese on the top is only added after I take the foil off otherwise the cheese would stick to it and come off with it once removed. You could use one of our Fornetto ceramics, which cook beautifully and nothing sticks to them! They can even go directly from the oven to the table.

Once the lasagne has baked for enough time and to your liking, allow it too cool slightly so the contents set perfectly before trying to cut it and removing a piece.

Baked lasagne should be enjoyed with fresh crusty bread and freshly grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano, with a glass of wine on the side!

CLICK HERE TO view the full recipe for my lasagne with ragù Bolognese, ricotta cheese, fresh basil and mozzarella.

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

You may have read our smokehouse blog about the tour we took around the Casa Boix smokehouse a few weeks ago however, if you missed it don’t fear, click HERE to read it before continuing on with this post as it gives you great pointers for different smoking techniques and tips about smoking in the Fornetto.

What I learnt about making bacon and smoked turkey breast at Casa Boix wasn’t as difficult as I had always imagined it would be. The curing process I’ve created here is my own, based on some independent research I did crossed with the technique I learnt at the smokehouse. As any good business owner, Jaume (the owner of Casa Boix) protected and kept his brine recipe a secret but I came up with one of my own that has a great balance between salt, sugar, water and spices that would please any discerning palate.

A brine is simply a mix of salt and water. Salt water from the ocean is a brine in itself for that matter however, for the sake of flavour, brines used for cooking consist of sweeteners, herbs, spices and even fresh fruits or vegetables. The rule of thumb for a basic salt-water brine for cooking is one cup of salt to 3.75 litres of water (roughly 1 US gallon), although I use a more traditional method involving an egg when preparing my brine for curing. As you may know, buoyancy is elevated in salt water and as such, a tried and true method is having the right salt to water ratio and to mix the salt into the water slowly while a fresh egg in its shell sits on the bottom of the bowl or basin. When the brine is concentrated enough in terms of salinity, the egg will float to the surface. That’s when you know that you’ve added enough salt for a curing brine. To make it easy for you though, the ratio is roughly 3 cups of pure, additive-free and non-iodised sea salt or kosher salt to 6 litres of water (roughly 1.6  US gallons). This is more than a standard run of the mill cooking brine however, because for the purpose of curing, the elevated salt content is paramount. If you will be consuming the bacon or turkey in its entirety in the amount of time you would any other brine-cooked meat, you can feel free to use the less concentrated brine, though for storing meats once they’ve been cured and smoked the brine with the higher salt content must be used. Times will vary greatly. When making bacon or smoked turkey for immediate consumption I recommend brining for around 12 to 20 hours though brining for curing requires more time. What I learnt at the smokehouse is that 4 days is sufficient for most cuts when curing them though you can cure for up to a week in brine without worrying. Be sure to keep it covered in a cool, dark place during the curing process or keep it in the fridge if you’re unsure.

Click here for the brine recipe.

Once the meat has been brined it’s time to smoke it. The turkey needs to be packed in something that won’t melt or burn, such as professional wrap made specifically for smoking and cooking, muslin, cheesecloth or parchment paper. It’s important to use a porous material or the meat won’t absorb the smokey flavour. Be sure that when packing the turkey into the cloth or paper that you attempt to squeeze out as much air as possible. The bacon can be cooked directly as is.

As I mentioned in the smokehouse blog, the humidity level is important when smoking in this manner. Be sure to use a steam bath in the bottom of the Fornetto and to remove it about 2 hours before the smoking process is complete.

The full smoking process takes about 6 hours in the Fornetto. Follow the instructions for hot-smoking in the Fornetto in the smokehouse blog and try your best to keep your temperature around the 70-75C (approximately 160-165F) mark. Bear in mind that the curing process will change the cooking temperature guidelines normally recommended for raw, uncured meat.

Smoked turkey breast and bacon cured and smoked in this fashion are ready to eat as is with no further cooking required. If you’re so inclined, the bacon can be fried to remove any excess fat and crisp it up however, it isn’t necessary. They should be stored in the fridge although it is important to note that unlike smoked goods produced commercially, our bacon and turkey only contain salt and no other additives or preservatives such as sulfites and/or nitrates to preserve the pink colour of the meat or for extended storage periods. I suggest that both the bacon and the turkey be consumed shortly after having been cured and smoked. They can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 7 days or frozen and used as needed.

Nothing beats a turkey-bacon sub, especially when you’ve spent so much time curing and smoking the meat yourself! Fries and a cold beer make for an excellent side!

You’re in for a treat. Enjoy!