Paasha Turkish Cafe

Give It A Whirl with Paasha Turkish Cafe

This month we rolled out the dough to make wood-fired pizzas at Paasha Turkish Cafe.

Paasha’s opened on the end of King Street in 2008, imported a wood-fired oven from Italy, and has been making pizza magic ever since.

They are known for making fresh-to-order pizzas and delicious Turkish food.

We arrived bright and early to see the owner of Paasha, Mustafa Gundogdu, prepping the oven with tea tree wood.
We donned our aprons, washed our hands, and began with crushing garlic and a chilli and mixing it with olive oil to top one of our pizzas.

Making the dough is a long and scientific process so we left it up to the professionals, as Mustafa had already prepared 6 perfect portions of beautifully risen dough.

We each took turns rolling out dough, adding lots of flour as we went. Using the back of a metal ladle, we spread sauce across each base, followed by sprinkling cheese and our toppings.

Each pizza had different toppings - including, pepperoni, mushroom, lamb, pesto chicken, and zucchini along with some staples like tomato and red onion.

We attempted the shuffling technique to push the pizzas deep into the wood-fired oven, occasionally lifting and pushing the side to rotate it and get an even crispiness.

After 5-10 minutes for each pizza, we checked to see if the base was cooked. Each time we pulled one out, delicious aromas wafted around the kitchen.

To finish it off, we squirted a bit of extra virgin olive oil around the crust and topped it off with some oregano.

When using the pizza cutter, we smashed it through the crispy crust to make it easier to drag across the pizza.
If you’re like us and have always wanted your own wood-fired oven, this huge natural cooker will set you back over $120,000.

A lot of work goes into maintaining this oven. It takes approximately two hours every morning for the fire to get hot enough. Then there is the regular cleaning, and even the chimney is cleaned every second month.

It’s worth popping down to Paasha Turkish Cafe to enjoy their freshly made pizzas, great coffee, and their huge Turkish offering including breads, dips, lamb kofta, kebabs, and desserts.

Keep an eye out for some exciting announcements soon as a bigger range of Turkish desserts is coming soon as they expand their offering next door.

Paasha Turkish Cafe
245 King Street, Pukekohe
www.paashaturkishcafe.co.nz