5 Toppings That Taste Better in a Wood-Fired Oven

Okay, we know we’re slightly biased on this one, but surely everyone can agree that pizza is one of the best foods on the planet. After all, 5 billion people around the world eat it every year; they can’t all be wrong, can they!? However, what we will concede is that there’s a world of difference between a “standard” pizza and wood-fired pizza. It’s not just the intense heat. It’s the smoke, and the flavour that smoke imparts on the dough and toppings. Some toppings barely notice the difference between gas or electric and wood. Others are transformed by it. So, on that basis, we’ve put together our five favourite toppings that taste genuinely better when cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven. Let’s go.

Mushrooms

Top of the list has to be mushrooms. They’re naturally earthy and rich in umami. They’re also incredible at absorbing flavour, which is exactly why wood smoke suits them so well. In a gas oven, high heat will brown and char mushrooms, but it can’t add anything beyond that. In a wood-fired oven, the smoke itself seeps into the mushrooms as they cook. 

Another great way to elevate the flavour of mushrooms is to sauté them first in the pizza oven using a cast iron pan. You can add any flavours you like here, but a hard herb such as thyme works well, along with chilli or black pepper to add a little heat.

Italian Sausage and Pepperoni

It’s no secret that cured Italian meats and pepperoni work amazingly well on pizza. A big reason for that is the fat content they carry, which allows the meats to render down and caramelise quickly in the high heat of the oven. The fat, though, is brilliant at carrying smoke as it absorbs the aromatics released by burning wood. 

A gas flame can crisp the edges just as well, but it burns clean, with nothing to infuse the toppings. You can try experimenting with different types of wood too. Oak, Silver Birch and Hickory all have different characteristic that affects the flavour of the smoke and therefore the final product.

Charred Vegetables

Yes, it’s another veggie one, but hear us out… Mediterranean vegetables such as peppers, courgettes, and aubergines work so well with wood fire. They’re fresh, colourful, and bring sweetness when cooked in the right way. The best way to cook vegetables in a wood-fired pizza oven is by using embers, which keep the temperature low but consistent and allow the sweetness to develop as the veggies cook down, but also give plenty of time for the smoky depth of flavour to impart. 

The combination of char and smoke gives vegetables a complexity that roasting in an electric or gas oven can’t match.

Nduja

Here’s one for you spice lovers. Nduja’s soft, spreadable texture means it melts into the pizza as it cooks, carrying its chilli heat and fat content through the cheese and sauce. Much like with the cured meats mentioned earlier, the fat content of Nduja picks up smoky flavour along the way, so the heat arrives with that smokiness behind it rather than just the raw hit of spice.

It’s a small, quite subtle difference compared to Nduja cooked using the clean heat of gas or electric, which of course will still melt nduja just as effectively, but the flavour stays one-dimensional.

Cheese

You might be surprised by the rather generic inclusion of this section. However, cheese has a real quality of taking on a deep smokiness, which is often overlooked, as it’s just a go-to ingredient on 99% of home-cooked pizzas. 

As cheeses such as mozzarella, taleggio, or gorgonzola melt at high temperatures, the fat content becomes absorptive, picking up the aromatics from the wood. The result is a rounder, deeper flavour, with a faint smokiness that wasn’t there to begin with. If you’re used to pizzas made in a gas pizza oven, you’ll notice the difference immediately, as although the smokiness is subtle, it’s completely different to the clean burn of gas.

Final Thoughts

The thing that ties all five of these toppings together is fat, moisture, or natural earthiness that smoke can cling to and enhance. That’s the variable a gas oven simply doesn’t have, no matter how high the temperature climbs. If you want to take it further, experiment with different hardwoods in your Igneus Pizza Oven.

A wood-fired pizza oven does more than cook your pizza. It adds flavour to it as it cooks, even in as little as 60 seconds.

Thanks for reading, and as always, if you’d like to learn more about the range of Igneus Pizza Ovens, or have any questions you need answering, our friendly team is here to help. Call us on 01423 575885 or explore our full range of ovens and pizza oven accessories here.