Pop-Up Pizza Oven Party

/

Updated February 9, 2023

Pop-up pizza parties and ice-cold refreshments are two ways we make the most of the outdoor cooking season. We welcome any opportunity to fire up our portable wood pellet pizza oven. If you’re looking for an excuse to kick off your deck or patio party season, this may be the one.

Two questions to get started, are you adventurous in your culinary skills, and are you a pizza lover? If so, this behind-the-scenes look into cooking pizza in a portable oven is for you. As a result of our periodic Instagram videos (@red.rugged) of Rugged making his pizzas, we get a lot of questions about his homemade pizzas and the Ooni oven. We thought we’d have some fun today answering those questions and share how to fire up the oven and create a delicious experience. Try pepperoni, margarita, or our favorite, homemade pesto sauce topped with thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes and fontina cheese finished with a sprinkle of cracked pepper; it’s a tough choice but tasty to sample and select the winner.

Pesto, fontina cheese, Yukon gold potatoes

You may be curious about this process if you’re already cooking pizzas in the kitchen oven or perhaps on the grill. Rugged graduated to cooking our pizzas in the Ooni portable wood pellet oven, thanks to a friend and fellow pizza maker (Hat tip to Jeff Markham). Here are our tips and tricks to get your mouth watering.

A Heads Up: Clear off some space on your deck or patio to make room for all your new friends. Your pizza-loving buddies will be excited to taste this piping-hot pie.

In preparation:
The process we describe below starts once you’ve made your pizza. Rugged makes his own dough, and each dough ball is ready to roll between pies.

The cooking happens fast, so make sure you have your serving area set up before you begin.

The pizza size matters as your kitchen oven or outside grill is much larger than this oven. The Ooni oven we have (seen here in photos) is for a 12” pizza. (They also have a 16”.) Tip: Because the 12” is small, if you plan to serve a bunch of people, you’ll be making a lot of pizzas. Even when it’s just the two of us, we never make just one pizza :)

You might need a smaller pizza peel because the opening of the pizza oven is not as wide as your kitchen stove or the grill. (The “peel” is the piece with the handle that slides the pizza inside.). We use a 12” peel. Tip: Sprinkle flour onto the wood peel to make the pizza slide on and off easily (this is true for anywhere you use the peel - kitchen oven or grill too).

Once the pizza’s ready, here’s what you need to know for a perfect wood pellet oven pie.

  • Speed and agility are essential. This process is not for the slow and cautious chefs.

  • Fire up the portable oven to about 900 degrees. It happens quickly (approximately 15 minutes) using a little basket of wood pellets that slides into the back of the oven.

  • Use an infrared thermometer to confirm the temperature has reached a red hot 900 degrees. Make sure the thermometer points at the back of the pizza stone inside the oven. (Tip: Be sure you get a thermometer rated for 1000 degrees.) Be patient, don’t start before it hits 900 degrees.

  • Stay alert around the back of the oven. When you pop open the front to slide the pizza inside, flames can appear out the back if there’s any breeze. Quite the surprise if you’re not expecting it.

  • Once the pizza goes inside the oven, the timer starts. Get ready to pull the pizza out and rotate it a quarter turn every 12-15 seconds. (The back of the oven gets hotter than the front, so these quick turns are essential.) Pull the pizza out, turn it, and pop it back in three more times to ensure the pizza is cooked evenly. If you hear sizzling, it’s probably too late, and it’s burnt.

  • Be sure to keep checking the temperature if you’re making multiple pizzas. The wood pellets burn quickly. (We add more pellets between the second and third pizza.)

  • Tip: The oven weighs 20 lbs. You’re not likely to store it someplace high if there’s not enough space to keep it outside.

If pizza is the center of attention for most casual evening meals, get ready to enjoy this little slice of culinary heaven!