I recently posted an Ooni Pizza Dough recipe and linked the Ooni pizza oven and accessories that we have. I bought the Ooni as a Christmas gift for my husband about 2.5 years ago. It turns out that my husband likes to use the oven for more than just pizza (wings, steak, fish, etc.) and the size of the oven is a bit limiting since he can't fit his cast iron skillet inside. I recently looked into upgrading to something bigger, perhaps a larger Ooni, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I wanted something we could keep outside all the time and use for more than just pizza.
I started looking at Alfa Forni, which are made in Italy. My cousin has an Alfa Brio and loves it, however it's much larger than we need for our small family of 4 and way too expensive for us. Alfa makes various ovens that can hold anywhere from 1 to 5 pizzas at a time - some are wood burning only, some are gas only, and others are hybrid and can use either wood or gas if you purchase the hybrid kit. My husband has used both wood and gas in his Ooni, but gas is much faster and easier and doesn't make a mess.
Alfa makes two small ovens - the smallest is called the Portable and the next size up is called the called the Moderno 1 Pizza (previously called the One and the Nano). These used to come in either gas or wood - there was no option for a hybrid kit with these two smaller ovens, however it looks like a newer version of the Moderno 1 Pizza can now be ordered with a hybrid option. After some research, I decided to go for the Alfa Moderno 1 gas only oven. It makes one 12-14" pizza at a time. Since they only take about 90 seconds to bake, cooking one at a time is fine for us. It is larger than our Ooni, but not so big that it's overkill for us. It's also not so small that it can't crank out 16-20 pizzas when we have larger parties. The oven will easily bake the pizzas faster than we can prepare them. I prefer the smaller size oven so it won't use as much propane and it will heat up quicker than the larger ovens would. The smaller footprint will work better on our deck and not take up as much space. There is also a very big difference in price between this oven and the next size up, the Moderno 2 Pizze, which can hold 2 pizzas at a time. If I could have swung it financially and we had a better outdoor food prep set up, this is the largest oven I would have considered. However, it was both too expensive and too big and heavy for us considering we want to keep it on our deck. The base for this is also a lot more expensive than the base for the Moderno 1. The next size up from that is the Moderno 3 Pizze (this replaced the Brio and can hold 3 pizzas), and then the Moderno 5 Pizze. Alfa also makes professional ovens and other lines of domestic ovens including the Classico, Futuro, and some Limited Edition, however I only looked at the Moderno ovens.
Some of the Alfa Moderno ovens come in a choice of colors (Antique Red, Fire Yellow, Ardesia Grey), but the Nano gas oven only comes in a dark brown color called Copper. We plan to keep the oven on our Trex deck, which is also a dark brown color, so the oven will look nice there. This oven has a base with casters on it that is available for an additional cost in the same Copper color or in Black.
Once I knew which oven I wanted, I started looking around for the best price. I found two online retailers that were offering the coordinating base/stand for free with the purchase of the oven. This was great since I would have had to purchase a steel table or something else to keep the oven on. The base looks nicer, hides the propane tank, and has very good casters that lock, which will make it easy to move around. They both also offered a 5% discount. While trying to see if I could find a better deal anywhere else, I found a website for a small family-owned business in Oregon called Smokey Mountain Fireplaces and they do not charge sales tax. I reached out to them to ask if they would match the promotion for the free base and 5% discount. They were happy to do so, and even offered to send me some firewood for free. It was really nice to communicate with someone from a small business, and not just an online chat with someone in another country who did not really know much about these ovens. I always prefer to spend my money at a small business, so I was very happy that I came across this one - and because they don't charge sales tax, they had the best price! If you are looking to purchase one of these ovens, I highly recommend contacting them.
I ordered the oven on a Tuesday and it arrived the following Tuesday. It is large and heavy and is delivered like an appliance, on a pallet. The delivery company, Custom Global Logistics, called me from Dulles International Airport to schedule a 4-hour window to deliver it and I was asked by the company I purchased it from to open and inspect everything for damages before the delivery company left, in case I needed to refuse the delivery. Luckily, everything looked great.
The base was very easy to install and looks nice!
There's not much to assembling the oven. All of the pieces that come with it are stored inside the oven, so we just removed those and unwrapped them, and then placed the oven on top of the cart and secured it. We removed all of the protective film. We don't need the 4 feet since we are putting it on a cart, but if you are placing the oven on a table you will need to install those. Lastly, my husband hooked up the propane tank, turned the oven on to preheat it and then prepped dinner! Since this oven is smaller and lighter weight than the others, it was pretty easy for my husband to do most of this by himself. I only helped lift the oven on to the base.
Since all of our deck furniture is Polywood (made out of recycled material, similar to Trex material) and I don't want any of it to melt or get damaged, I bought a folding stainless steel table we can use as a prep table and to keep the pizza peels on and the hot items that come out of the oven. We will have to store this inside so it doesn't rust, but it is small and lightweight enough that carrying it inside and out shouldn't be an issue. We'll put it to the right of the oven that should still leave plenty of space for us to keep all the furniture where we've had it the past few years.
As far as accessories go, we already have most of what we need from using our Ooni. Since the oven will stay outside on our deck year-round and there are trees above our deck that make a mess with leaves and pollen, I wanted a good cover for it. Alfa sells their own covers which cover either just the oven or cover the oven and the base, but neither option covers the smokestack. I also read that they are not the best quality covers and expensive given the lack of quality. My husband wanted a cover that would go over the smokestack so he wouldn't have to attach and remove it every time we use the oven. I read that Coverstore makes good custom covers (they offer a free swatch kit) and their reviews were better than the ones on Covers&All (they offer a free swatch kit as well). Coverstore was having a 40% off Memorial Day weekend sale, but I wanted to wait and measure the oven, smokestack and base (with propane tank connected) myself once we put it all together to make sure I had accurate dimensions for the cover, and they offered to apply the discount for me once I was able to measure it myself and place my order, even though the sale would be over by then. I contacted both companies, and was definitely more impressed with the customer service responses from Coverstore. Because of the 40% off sale price, I decided to order the most expensive material which carries a 10 year warranty. This cover is much better quality and cost less than the Alfa one! I'm also glad I waited to measure everything myself, because the dimensions were slightly different from what the manufacturer provided.
The only other accessory I decided to get was an Alfa 3-piece set with a medium (12") pizza peel, turner and brush. The brush would be helpful for cleaning the pizza stone, and having a second pizza peel would be helpful too. Unfortunately, this set is made in China, not in Italy like the ovens, so I initially hesitated to buy it, but it looked like a much nicer set than the Ooni peels we have and we don't have a brush, and it has adjustable handles for all 3 pieces which is nice. I didn't want to pay full price for this set and could not find any sales on it, but luckily, I found someone selling a brand new, sealed set on Facebook Marketplace and decided to buy it.
We will use our Lodge cast iron 12" skillet and 10.25" skillet in this oven to make all sorts of things. We've had both of these skillets for over 10 years and they are indestructible. I prefer to cook with my Le Creuset enameled cast iron, but I won't be putting those in an outside oven! The Lodge cast iron is perfect for it though and my husband prefers to use those when he cooks. For our first meal in the Alfa, we used the 12" skillet for sausage and peppers and made hot dogs in the 10.25" skillet. It was delicious and cooked pretty fast! We also made wings in the skillet and they were delicious as well!
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| First meal from our pizza oven - sausage and peppers! |
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| and hot dogs for the kids |
The first time we used it for pizza was on the 4th of July when I made 4 recipes of the Ooni pizza dough - enough for 16 pizzas. We had 3 of my sisters and their families over for dinner and I unfortunately did not take any pictures once I started putting the pizzas together, but my husband took one photo. The pizzas were delicious and everyone loved them. We only had 1 slice of pizza left!
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| 4 recipes of Ooni pizza dough |
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| Divide each recipe into 4 dough balls after the first rise |
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| After the second ride - ready to use! |
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| The only pizza picture my husband took |
This oven is built like a tank (it's made in Italy!), looks nice, and cooks delicious meals. While most people who buy these ovens probably go for the larger sizes, the Moderno 1 is the perfect size for a small family like ours, and it is certainly a major upgrade from any Ooni oven! We are looking forward to using it year-round for many years.
