Pizza Bianca
Pizza bianca might just be Rome’s most iconic bakery snack—no small feat in a city that treats baking with religious reverence. It’s deceptively simple: flour, water, yeast, salt, and a generous slick of olive oil brushed across its dimpled surface before it hits the blistering oven. But this humble snack, crisp yet chewy, airy yet substantial, is a lesson in Roman baking tradition, a bread that bakers perfect over years of repetition. Early-morning queues outside spots like Antico Forno Roscioli, Forno Campo de’ Fiori, and Panificio Bonci underscore the city’s eternal devotion to this salty, oily carb bomb. Eat it plain, warm from the oven, or slice it open and layer thinly shaved mortadella inside. When figs are in season, combine them with slices of prosciutto for the ultimate summer sandwich filling. Regardless of how you intend to enjoy it, mix your dough the day before you plan to bake it.
5 ingredients
Prep: 40 mins
Cook: 25 mins
Pizza Bianca
Ingredients (5)
Ingredients (5)
Instructions
Combine the flour (7 ⅛ cups) and yeast (¾ tsp) in a large bowl, then pour in 1 ⅓ lb of the water. Stir with your fingertips or a spoon until a shaggy dough forms.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to *autolyse (see page 241)* for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes have passed, uncover the bowl, sprinkle over the salt (1 ⅖ Tbsp), and pinch it in. Add the remaining 3 ½ oz water a little bit at a time and gently knead.
Once all the water is incorporated, cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for another 30 minutes.
Uncover the bowl and do one set of stretch-and-folds to build strength *(see page 246):* With one wet hand, lightly grasp one edge of the dough. Pull this flap of dough upward and outward, then attach it to the top of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat until you have rotated the bowl a complete revolution, or until the dough tightens up and becomes more structured.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap again and repeat the stretching and folding once every hour for 3 more rounds, allowing it to rest between each.
After the last stretch-and-fold, place the dough in a large, lightly greased bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap, and set aside to cold-ferment in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator and set aside until it reaches room temperature and increases in volume, about 3 hours.
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