Chef Graziella
Biove Piemontesi
The boat-shaped bread rolls of Piedmont, crusty and substantial, built on an overnight biga that gives them character no quick bread can match. Northern Italian baking at its most honest.
Culinary Explorer
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Pizza Bianca Romana
Created by
The street bread of Rome, nothing but flour, water, salt, and good olive oil, baked until blistered and eaten warm from the forno. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in.
Breads
Italian, Roman
Weeknight
Quick Meal
30 min
Active Time
15 min cook•14 hr total
Yield2 large flatbreads (8 servings)
Romans do not call this pizza. They call it what it is: pizza bianca, white pizza, the bread you buy by weight at the neighborhood forno and eat while walking to wherever you are going. No tomato. No mozzarella. Just dough that has had time to develop character, good olive oil, and salt.
The hydration is high, which terrifies people who learned to make bread from dry, obedient doughs. This dough is alive. It sticks to your hands. It moves when you touch it. It creates the open, irregular crumb and the blistered surface that distinguish Roman pizza bianca from lesser flatbreads. You cannot achieve this texture with a stiff dough, no matter how long you knead.
Time does the work here. The overnight rest in the refrigerator costs you nothing but patience, and it gives you flavor that a two-hour rise cannot approach. The forni of Rome have understood this for generations. Their ovens never cool, but their doughs always rest.
Pizza bianca has been sold in Roman bakeries since at least the 19th century, when it emerged as the bread of the working class. The forni baked it in the cooler parts of their wood-fired ovens while waiting for the temperature to rise enough for the day's loaves. Today it remains the standard by which Romans judge their local bakery, eaten plain or split and filled with mortadella.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bread flour or tipo 00 flour
Quantity
500g
water
Quantity
375g
at room temperature
fine sea salt
Quantity
10g
instant yeast
Quantity
3g
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
for the pan and finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bread flour or tipo 00 flour | 500g |
| waterat room temperature | 375g |
| fine sea salt | 10g |
| instant yeast | 3g |
| extra virgin olive oil | for the pan and finishing |
Equipment Needed
- •Rimmed baking sheets (13x18 inches)
- •Kitchen scale
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Plastic wrap or tight-fitting lid
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dough
In a large bowl, combine the flour and yeast. Add the water all at once. Mix with your hand or a wooden spoon until a shaggy, sticky mass forms with no dry flour visible. This takes only two or three minutes. Do not knead. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. This rest period allows the flour to hydrate fully.
- 2
Add the salt
Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Wet your hand and fold the dough over itself several times, pressing the salt into the mass. The dough will feel loose and sticky. This is correct. A wet dough creates the characteristic open crumb and blistered surface. Cover again and let rest 30 minutes more.
- 3
Develop the gluten
With wet hands, reach under the dough, stretch it upward, and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Do this eight to ten times around the bowl. The dough will become smoother and more elastic. Cover and rest 30 minutes. Repeat this folding process two more times, with 30-minute rests between. After three rounds of folding, the dough should feel supple and alive.
Keep your hands wet. This dough is sticky by design. Fighting it with dry hands leads to frustration and a dense result. - 4
Cold ferment overnight
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container at least three times its size. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. The long, cold fermentation develops flavor that no quick rise can replicate. The dough will double and become puffy with large bubbles visible beneath the surface.
This overnight rest is not optional. It is where the bread develops its character. Plan accordingly. - 5
Prepare the pans
Pour two tablespoons of olive oil into each of two rimmed baking sheets. Tilt to coat the entire surface. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Divide it in half and place each portion on a prepared pan. Let rest at room temperature for one hour. The dough must warm up before you stretch it.
- 6
Stretch the dough
Oil your fingertips generously. Press into the dough, dimpling it across the entire surface and pushing it toward the edges of the pan. Work from the center outward. The dough will resist and spring back. Let it rest five minutes, then stretch again. Repeat until the dough fills the pan in a thin, uneven layer. Some spots thicker, some thinner. This is traditional.
Do not use a rolling pin. Your fingers create the dimpled surface that holds pools of olive oil. A pin would flatten this character away. - 7
Final rise
Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil over each stretched dough. Let rise uncovered at room temperature until puffy and full of air bubbles, 30 to 45 minutes. The dough should jiggle when you shake the pan. Meanwhile, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 8
Bake until blistered
Sprinkle coarse salt over the surface. Bake one pan at a time on the lower rack for 12 to 15 minutes, until deeply golden on top and the edges are dark and crisp. The center should be lighter than the edges, soft beneath a thin crust. Remove from the oven and drizzle immediately with more olive oil while still hot.
- 9
Serve properly
Slide the pizza bianca onto a cutting board. Cut into strips or squares with scissors, as the Roman bakers do. Eat it warm, within the hour if possible. This is street food. It waits for no one. The exterior should shatter slightly, the interior should be soft and open with irregular holes, and the olive oil should leave your fingers glistening.
Chef Tips
- •Weigh your ingredients. This dough has a 75 percent hydration, and small variations in flour or water change everything. Volume measurements are unreliable for bread.
- •The oil you finish with matters more than the oil you bake with. Use your finest extra virgin olive oil for the final drizzle, when you can taste it most directly.
- •If the dough tears when you stretch it, you have not let it rest enough. Walk away. Give it ten minutes. The gluten will relax and the dough will become cooperative.
- •Bake the pizza bianca darker than you think it should be. The characteristic flavor comes from the blistered spots and crisp edges. Pale pizza bianca is timid pizza bianca.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can ferment in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. Longer fermentation develops more complex, slightly tangy flavor.
- •Pizza bianca is best within two hours of baking. It does not keep well. Plan to bake it close to when you will eat it.
- •The unbaked, shaped dough can rest in the refrigerator for up to four hours after stretching. Bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 105g)
Calories
305 calories
Total Fat
9 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
485 mg
Total Carbohydrates
48 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
8 g
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