Features

How to create your own pizza oven in the garden

Tip

Choose a sheltered position in the garden out of the wind.

Preparation Time

1 day to build the foundations
1 full day to build the oven
2 weeks to dry the oven before using

Materials

Tarpaulin
4 wheelbarrows full of clay
Sand
Straw
Sycamore /Dock leaves
Willow sticks 6 feet in length and the thickness of a little finger
Red bricks
Cement
A zinc roof or gazebo to protect the oven from bad weather
Fire bricks
2 sacks of wooden blocks
10 sacks of dry firewood

Steps

• Create a circular base, 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet high using the common bricks and cement Let it dry.

  

  (Alternatively, see how to make a slightly different base)

• Set the tarpaulin on the ground and mix the clay, sand and straw together Russell chose to do this in the traditional way - with his feet! (Singing traditional ditties whilst doing this is optional!)

  

• Make a basket out of the willow sticks:

  a) Take two branches and bend them over each other in the shape of two bows crossing at right angles in the middle. The ends should be pushed into the earth.

  b) Cut 6 other branches in half and weave them from one side to the other over the bow to create a circle.

  c) Weave the remainder of the branches around the frame starting at the bottom and working upwards towards the top.

  This is the shape you should end up with:

  

• Place a clay 'sausage' in a ¾ circle on top of the foundations of the oven and the fire bricks inside the sausage to create the floor of the oven.

  

  Cover the basket with a layer of earth (not the clay) then put the wet Sycamore or Dock leaves (or whatever kind of large leaf that is available) over the earth. (The earth, leaves and the willow frame itself will be burnt away once a fire has been lit in the oven.)

  

  Now pat the mixture of clay, straw and sand over the leaves to build an igloo shape.

  

• Form a door on the most sheltered side of the oven, out of the wind.

  

• Form a chimney in the roof, opposite the door. (In the picture a plastic pipe has been used as a mould. Once the clay mixture has been put all over the frame, remove the pipe and a perfect chimney hole is left.)

  

• Light a small fire to steam the oven for an hour or two.

  

  After about two weeks, when the clay is totally dry light a bonfire inside the oven using the wooden blocks and the firewood and let it bur for about 5 hours or until the clay is hard like terracotta. The oven is ready for use. Buon appetito!

  

For more information on how to build a clay pizza oven contact Menter Felin Uchaf.

You can get hold of willow sticks from www.trigonos.org.

More information on using a clay pizza oven.

A slightly different way of building the clay pizza oven.