If you weren’t a darts fan before December, you will be now. It’s been a crazy few weeks in the sport from big guns being knocked out in the early rounds, coupled with the rise of 16 year old Luke Littler producing some world class performances to reach tonight’s final.
There was only ever going to be one finish for this week’s pizza of the week – a Dartboard pizza.
Inspiration
This one is pretty obvious. It’s long been a tradition in my house to get cosy on the couch and religiously watch the darts each night right through to the final in the new year.
Similar to my previous Cheeseboard Pizza recipe, I had a wacky idea in my head that I had to put in to action.
In previous years I might have talked myself out of it as it was a daunting prospect getting the flavours and colour themes correct, but the recent performances of young darts sensation Luke Littler prove that everything is possible with a lot of hard work and belief!
He declared post match on Sky Sports last night that he would kick off his day today like he normally does – with a ham and cheese omelette for breakfast. He then continued that he might go for a pizza as well, how fitting?! I definitely had to give it a go now.
The Dartboard
This was a tough one to get right!
In the end I’ve invented what could be considered a hybrid between a philly cheesesteak sandwich, and a black and blue burger!
Dark Segments: Sirloin steak marinated in soy sauce with black pudding and mushrooms.
Light Segments: My Pizza White Sauce, with added gorgonzola cheese to add the ‘blue element’, topped with more cheese in the form of mozzarella.
Doubles, Trebles, Bull: Nice and simple – green and red peppers, cut to size.
The Pizza
Dough
I’ve gone with my Poolish Pizza Dough recipe for this one.
There are a lot of flavours within the toppings and I wanted these to be the heroes and come through fully.
The Bake
Unfortunately the Scottish weather restricted me to the kitchen on this one! The rain and wind were a bit too much to bear for a nice woodfired bake.
However, it still turned out great!
I preheated my fan oven to it’s highest setting with a steel pizza tray inside. Once it had reached the temperature I removed the tray, and put on my stretched dough before topping accordingly in the dartboard fashion! Failure to cook outside also limited me to a 12 inch bake, rather than the larger 14 inch I’d originally intended.
This was a complex pizza and also called for a custom template to be produced as well.
Segment Template
The Verdict
Thankfully this one was worth the effort, one of my favourites to date.
I’ll definitely be replicating the flavour combination in future – whether it’s artistically reproduced as a dartboard is doubtful though…
Fancy giving it a go? Let me know how you get on.
Until then, enjoy the PDC World Championship Final in the ‘Battle of the Lukes’.
