What Makes A Great Pizza?
There’s no doubting that pizza is one of the most popular types of food in the world whether you’re picking one up from your local Clapham takeaway or dining out a restaurant. Given it’s so popular you’d be mistaken in thinking pizza’s been eaten in the UK for centuries but in fact Brits have only been enjoying the dish in their own country since after the second world war.
Despite its relatively short history in food terms (the first shop selling the dish opened in 1738), pizza has become the most widely eaten dish across the planet with billions of slices sold each year. Although the people of Europe and North America consume the most, every continent and country has a love of a good pizza. Asia is now closing in on America in terms of the revenue generated from demand for the dish.
Toppings vary depending on where in the world you are and they typically reflect regional tastes and cultural preferences. If you find yourself in India, you can expect the locals to have toppings such as mutton, cottage cheese (known as paneer) and pickled ginger. The Russians like a fish combination of sardines, mackerel, salmon, red herring and tuna. Japanese people like a pizza topped with eel, squid, mayo, potato and bacon. Take a seat at a local Clapham pizza restaurant and you’ll find most British diners enjoying pepperoni with extra cheese. Of course just because these toppings are considered the most popular in each country, doesn’t mean that’s what you have to order.
The beauty of the dish is that no matter what your food tastes, there are many ways and unlimited topping combinations to ensure you can have a delicious meal. The basic constituents have remained consistent as bread base, tomato sauce and cheese, but even these elements have been developed and improved by restaurants in different countries. Changes to the type of cheese, the tomato sauce and even how the dough for the base is made produces remarkable and delicious results.
Pizza is also considered a healthy food when the ingredients are well balanced and the cooking method is correct. Depending on the use of toppings it can provide a nutritious meal largely because of the health benefits of tomatoes, vegetables, olive oil, garlic, herbs and spices. These elements form the basis of the ‘Mediterranean diet’ which is considered to be the healthiest in the world. This is due to the ingredients containing antioxidants which help prevent chronic diseases such as cancer. In fact, recent studies have shown pizza can be beneficial in reducing rates of throat, skin and colon cancer.
So what makes a great pizza? Well, we all have our favourite toppings and preferred bread base whether its thin, deep pan or stuffed crust. However, you have to base a good pizza on the original recipe created by the Neapolitans in Italy because everything else is just personal preference. The base should light with a chewy crust and the dough made by hand each day. Top it with a sauce made from the best crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella (from cow’s milk) and basil. Ideally it should then be cooked in a brick or wood-fired oven which can achieve a high temperature (900 degrees or more). Get this right and the pizza emerges with a light, sumptuous, and slightly charred base with oozing cheese and a tangy, fragrant sauce. Perfect.
The ‘Eco’ Friendly Clapham Restaurant
What does good eating mean to you? Is it the quality of the food, good service and a great atmosphere? Perhaps the provenance of the ingredients is high on your list of priorities when dining out. Maybe you look for a healthy menu or the ‘green’ credentials of the restaurant. Now, what if you could find a Clapham Common restaurant that caters to all of those criteria? Well, there is one, and it’s aptly named ‘ECO’.
The healthy approach
This Clapham restaurant questions the way it sources ingredients, cooks them and then disposes of surplus waste. In doing so they’ve developed a healthy approach to eating and a healthy approach to the environment. When dishes are created fresh, the food looks and tastes better and with that comes a reputation for serving fantastic meals. And when a restaurant builds that type of reputation they naturally become the destination for discerning food lovers.
How food is grown, gathered and delivered is a high priority for cooking nutritious meals but today’s consumer is also looking for convenient menu options that are of the highest quality. The need to eat on the go, or when there’s no time to fit in a home-cooked meal, puts the emphasis on restaurants and takeaways to step-up and offer food that people really want. Unfortunately, the food in most high street establishments just doesn’t cut it.
At ECO, the provenance of ingredients is vital in creating fresh, delicious pizza and pasta dishes and preparing food the right way increases efficiency of output (to help reduce wastage and energy costs). As an example, the base of their famous ECO sourdough pizza is the lightest and healthiest in the country. Although created using a slow fermentation process, dough is prepared well before the torrent of orders come flooding in so the chefs can load pizzas into the ovens and have meals delivered to hungry customers quickly (but with an eye always on quality).
As a popular Clapham pizza restaurant they also take their responsibility to the local community and the wider population seriously. Rather than sending food waste from the cooking process (not from the customers’ plates because there’s rarely ever anything left!) such as peelings, bones and skins to landfill or incinerators, ECO operate an environmentally friendly program that sends it all to be bio-degraded. Now that’s socially conscious dining!
The ECO experience
Of course all the quality and convenience of the food is sometimes meaningless if service and atmosphere fall flat. Until you experience it, you’ll have to take the word of the local Clapham community and their understanding of good dining out.
Take a stroll to Clapham High Street and see for yourself how many people enjoy the ECO experience. If it’s not happy diners it’s happy children spending a Saturday morning at the restaurant’s unique kids pizza school. They really do cater for everything and everyone.
Myths About AGA Ovens – Part Two
When making a purchase the buyer should investigate all the options available and gen up on the pros and cons. The same goes for buying an Aga cooker although an Aga should be considered more of an investment than a purchase because it’s likely to be in your possession for a lifetime. As a range cooker it is quite simply second to none and any current owner will tell you they can’t live without it.
While researching which model to buy – whether it be a heat storage gas range cooker or a a duel-fuel – you’ll find plenty of positive reviews, but also a few negative ones. The fact is, not everyone will extol the virtues of an Aga but a lot of the opinions you’ll read are based on misinformation or from poor operation of the appliance. Many myths can be dispelled by learning how to operate the cooker correctly and the best way to learn is to book yourself on an Aga demonstration.
Some of the common misconceptions about Agas are listed, and answered, below.
“They’re dangerous if you’ve got kids. The hotplates are always on and give no indication or warning so horrible burns can occur.”
It’s true they’re always on but you’re aware of that because it gives off heat. The same goes for the hotplate so if a child lifts the lid they will feel the heat from it. If your child is tall enough to lift the lid, chances are they’re at an age when they know hot things can burn.
“You’ll have to throw out all your old pots and pans. Agas need flat-bottomed, thick base cookware and will ruin anything that isn’t.”
This isn’t true. Aluminium and stainless steel pans work fine and don’t have to have a thick base. Most pans these days are flat-bottomed anyway but if yours aren’t they’ll still be okay. Of course, if you’re buying a quality oven it’s a good idea to include some quality Aga cookware.
“The hotplates are so large but you can only really get one pan on satisfactorily. What if you need to put more pans on?”
Owning an Aga does require you to learn new ways of cooking and that includes relying less on the hotplates and more on the ovens. An Aga cookery demonstration will teach you how to do this. However, if you prefer cooking with pans there are other models available that will provide up to six gas burners.
“You can’t control the temperature so all your old cookbooks become redundant. You have to buy Aga cookery books.”
Not at all. You’ll learn where to find the different temperatures of the ovens. For example, slow cooking is done in the simmering oven, pie crusts are best on the floor of the top oven and the roasting oven changes temperature from top to bottom. Once you know where to put things, you can use your old cookbooks as well as your new ones.
“There’s no timer. What if you want to have something ready for when you return home?”
That’s true about the timer, but you can slow cook your dinner so it’s ready when you get in. And don’t forget, the oven will already be up to temperature so when you come in from work there’s no pre-heat waiting times and you can start cooking immediately.
Clapham Common – Relaxation & Restaurants
If you’re lucky enough to live in London or you’re a tourist to the nation’s capital city then a good place to visit is Clapham Common. As one of the largest open spaces in London, the Common is home to plenty of outdoor events in the summer and surrounded by some of the best restaurants in Clapham. You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to selection of eateries around the Common itself and on along the vibrant High Street.
Clapham Common
Londoners will tell you how important large open spaces are to city-dwelling especially when you have to spend so much of your time in the congested streets or fighting your way through the commuting rush hour. Clapham Common is a 220 acre parkland situated between Clapham, Battersea and Balham where cyclists, kite-flyers, joggers, picnickers and children get the chance to grab some fresh air and enjoy much needed downtime.
Clapham Common has three ponds, two of which are used for angling and one for model boat enthusiasts. The Common also has a modern paddling pond for cooling down in on a hot summer’s afternoon and outdoor courts for the sporting types. At the centre of the Common is London’s largest bandstand which has regular live music from June through to September – pull up a deckchair and unwind to some jazz, blues or big band.
During the summer there are also a number of festivals on the Common including Ben & Jerry’s Sundae Festival where free ice cream, fairground rides, a city farm and live music combine to provide a great event for big kids and little kids alike. If you happen to be around the Common on the night of November 5th, you’ll be in time for bonfire night with a huge fireworks display, processions and funfairs.
After spending time soaking up the sun, getting a bit of exercise or watching things go bang, you’ll be in need of some sustenance and you’re just a short stroll away from the great choice of Clapham restaurants.
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