I'll start with the obvious here: I'm no stranger to a pizza. After a teenage career spinning dough in Dominos, I've since tried my making my own at The Baltic Pizza Co and, more recently, spent a shameful number of hours putting together my A-Z list of Liverpool pizza joints.
Incidentally, one of the places on that list is Fritto and no it's not under 'F', it's under 'X'... because, let's face it, the list is a shambles. Usually based at the Kazimier gardens, Fritto are mostly known for their Italian street food including their signature panzerotto- deep-fried calzone pizza. I finally had one of these when I went away last year and it's every bit as filthy & delicious as it looks.
Since the Corona lock-down began I've been looking for new ways to support local business, not entirely selflessly of course since I've also been after some decent food to keep us going. I'm missing Rudy's which quickly became one of my most frequented places last year and we had a brilliant takeaway from the Baltic's own Little Furnace, but even that didn't quash my desire to whip up my own. So, having seen few places in Manchester doing DIY pizza kits, I hopped straight on the bandwagon the second Fritto announced their own Liverpool-based version last weekend.
What's in the kit?
Your little pizza parcel comes straight to your doorstep with everything you'll need to make the dough: flour, yeast and salt. Granted, you could probably buy most of that yourself, but everywhere I've been lately has been completely barren on the flour front and unless you want to crawl door to door between bakeries yeast seems to be a bit hard to come by too.
Alongside your base, Fritto provide you with their signature tomato passata, mozzarella and, with the premium bundle, 5 extra toppings. The quality of the ingredients seems to make all the difference here: we had smoked cheese, buffalo mozzarella, Tuscan sausage, salami and little pot of spicy N'duja. Our package came in at £28 and we managed to get 4 big pizzas out of it- each one easily enough to share between two or more if you throw in a couple of sides.
Let's get down to business...
The base recipe they provide for the dough is simple but with the amount of resting it'll need to do I'd strongly suggest making it the day before you want it. The longer I've left the dough the better that lovely yeasty smell has been and the more squidgy and bubbly the crust. Overnight in the fridge seems to do the trick for me- it's just a matter of combining it, giving it a quick knead and then trying desperately to leaving it alone.
Once your dough is ready you can start gently stretching it out to fit your oven tray, covering it in sauce and then baking (you add your toppings a few minutes before finishing up). I'd recommend playing around with your oven settings after you've done your first one- Fritto recommends 8 minutes on full-whack followed by 2-3 with the toppings on, but mine seems to work best if I cooked the base for 6 and the toppings for another 4...it's trial and error of the best kind.
The results...
If you're having flashbacks to those cardboard-y ready-made Napolina bases you used to top as a kid then you needn't worry because this is worlds apart and undoubtedly one of the best pizzas I've had. (Even if I do say so myself)
The crust goes completely crisp on the base thanks to the metal tray but stays fluffy inside with a good floppy middle. The toppings are incredible quality and probably make all the difference on the flavour front, though I'll admit I did make a sneaky ham & pineapple one and it was pretty damn good too.
You can find out more about Fritto and order your own kit on their website here.
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