Romana Pizza
As we have anticipated, the Pizza alla Romana was born as a variant of the classic Neapolitan Pizza after the war, well 200 years later. Obviously, it is not possible to express an objective judgment, to establish which is better and which is worse: both represent the excellence of Italian pizza makers, and then it depends on personal taste, as it should be!
It is certainly very different from Neapolitan pizza, which stands out for its long-leavened dough. In fact, Roman pizza lacked a concept of dough maturation. That ‘scrocchiarello’ effect so much loved by lovers of Roman pizza is obtained by the immaturity of the dough and the use of a rolling pin was the only way to smooth it.
The true Roman Pizza between past and present
In the past, the dough was very hard and not very hydrated. Furthermore, the leavening was really short. Fresh brewer’s yeast was used, no mother yeast typical of Neapolitan pizza. The quality of the ingredients and flours used were rather poor as the pizza was seen as a popular food. The cooking was at least two minutes (contrary to the little more than a minute of the Neapolitan pizza) and the cornice did not exist.
Today the situation is quite different: There is no defined relationship between the dough, nor a right or wrong amount or type of flour or yeast: it is the sensitivity of the pizza chef who builds his version of Roman pizza.
The maturation must not be less than 8 hours and the dough must be formed no less than 4 hours before use, to ensure its digestibility.
The use of a rolling pin is optional, for many types of dough it can be said that it is even not recommended; in the previous solution, it was mandatory.
The quality of ingredients and condiments must be increasingly taken care of.
The Roman pizza recipe
If your mouth is watering just reading about these spectacular pizza variations, let’s now see what the recipe is for preparing Romana pizza. The ingredients we will need to prepare our pizza for 4 are:
– 450g of tomatoes;
– 420g of flour (medium);
– 250g of mozzarella;
– 230ml of water;
– 20g of salt;
– 1g of brewer’s yeast;
– oil.
For the preparation, the first thing to do is dissolve the brewer’s yeast in the water. Then add the salt and 210g of flour. Once these ingredients have been blended, you can start kneading until the flour has been completely absorbed. Then add the other half of the flour and continue kneading, putting a lot of energy to do it. Then also add the oil and continue kneading for about ten minutes, until the dough has become compact. Then take the dough, fold it in two, and cover it for about a quarter of an hour.
Then pick up the dough, knead it for another couple of minutes and then cover it again, and let it rest for about an hour.
At this point, take the dough, divide it into four parts and with each of these form balls of about 160g. Once ready, cover them and let them rise for about 6 hours. Turn on the oven at 250° to heat it and insert a dripping pan upside down. Take the balls of dough, sprinkle them with flour, and, using a rolling pin, spread them out in such a way as to obtain very thin discs. Season with tomato, oil, pepper, salt, and mozzarella, and bake.
Insert the pizza discs into the dripping pan and cook for about 5 minutes. A sign that the Romana pizza is ready and can be taken out of the oven is that the edges are slightly scorched.
