Pizza Bianca Romana

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.