Liguoris Handmade Pizza near Fordingbridge

On certain evenings the car park outside the Woodfalls Inn or the Hyde Club in Fordingbridge fills with the smell of wood smoke and a queue that was never on the pub menu. The source is a van rather than a kitchen: Liguoris Handmade Pizza, which brings proper wood-fired pizza to pubs and villages across the northern New Forest and the Fordingbridge area.

The pizzas are made from scratch in a Romano style. The dough is naturally fermented, shaped by hand so it is never perfectly round, and cooks to a thin, crisp crust with a light, chewy centre. The oven runs on apple and beech wood, which gives a clean, slightly sweet smoke rather than a heavy char.

Ingredients stay simple: tipo 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes and proper mozzarella, with authentic Italian meats and cheeses, plus fresh local produce from New Forest suppliers where it fits.

The van does not keep fixed hours in one spot. It works a regular evening circuit of local pubs, typically from around 5pm to 7.30pm or 8pm, and the schedule shifts.

Current stops include the Parish Lantern in Whiteparish on Mondays, the Woodfalls Inn on Tuesdays, the Hyde Club in Fordingbridge on the first Wednesday of each month, the Royal Oak at Fritham on Thursdays and the Compass Inn at Copythorne on Fridays. It also does private catering for events. The practical way to know where it will be is the website, which lists the week’s locations and any changes.

It is a small micro business trading as Jon’s Pizza Company and registered as a mobile caterer. There is no dining room and no booking system for the pub stops; you turn up, order (or use the QR code to order ahead) and eat in the car park or take it away. For anyone in or near Fordingbridge who wants wood-fired pizza without a trip to a fixed pizzeria, this is the one that comes to the pubs.