Roma style pizza recipe straight from Rome!

[urmaniac13]

Well I kept a few people on waiting for this, as I needed to verify some details with Cristiano and he has been bombarded with work lately, I had to wait for the right moment but at last, here it goes...


Preheat the oven to (if possible) 250C/500F. If your oven doesn't reach this temperature as high as possible.

-1 cube of beer yeast (about 35-40g)
-1 tsp sugar
-1 cup barely lukewarm water
mix them well and let it stand for 15 min. circa.(A)

-500g of mixed flour (our formula is regular flour 30%, bread flour 30%, manitoba 20%, yellow soy flour 20% --- if manitoba and soy flour are not available, regular and bread flour 50-50 will do)
-a pinch of salt

Add (A) to the dried ingredients in an ample bowl, mix well. Add a little more lukewarm water as needed. Make a ball and turn out to a floured surface, knead well until the dough is very elastic, a little on a sticky side. (wet your hand with olive oil to avoid everything sticking to your fingers)

Separate them into 5 balls, then stetch them out by hand into a round pizza shape, very very thin. (It may have some semi-transparent patches)
They will be about the medium sized pizza, but since they are very thin, one person can easily eat a whole pie or more!

You can do this on a any flat floured surface if you have a pizza server (the tool they use in a pizzeria... the flat shovel) and a pizza baking brick in the oven. Or you can press the dough directly onto a pizza pan (well greased).
Let the dough stand for 20-30minutes in a warm place, covering with a wet cloth if necessary.

In the meantime, slice/shred the pizza topping ingredients, incruding mozzarella cheese (for pizza better not the fresh one as it contain too much liquid, there is mozzarella specially made for pizzas, less moist, available).

Dress the pizza.
Red pizza-Italians do not use the "ragu" type paste for a pizza sauce. They simply use the crushed tomatoes from the tin and then sprinkle herbs and spices. (oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, a little crushed pepper, on some varieties also garlic but not all). Be careful of the amount of tomatoes as this is much juicier than the pasty pizza sauce the foreign folks are accustomed to. Otherwise the pizza can get too soggy!! Add your toppings and sprinkle with salt and extra virgin olive oil. Some of my favourite red pizzas are mushrooms, grilled aubergene and parmigiano and tuna and onion.

White pizza-the version without tomato sauce. I like them with pumpkin flowers, mushrooms, shredded onions and bell peppers, thinly sliced potatoes and rosemary, scamorza and speck or 4cheese sauce. (I will post the recipe for 4cheese sauce separately soon!)

Bake it in the oven, first WITHOUT mozzarella. The cooking time vary depending on the capacity of the oven, it could range from a few minutes to 15-20 minutes. When the dough starts getting nicely coloured, take it out and spread the mozzarella evenly on top. Put it back in the oven until the cheese is nicely melted, bubbling with some golden patches for a few more minutes.
Get some cold brew out to go with the pizza and enjoy!!

**If you do have an access to a wood burning oven, it is IDEAL. Heat it very well and the pizzas will cook within a few minutes with a slightly smoked flavour...mmm!(in this case put the mozzarella along with everything else.) When we were holidaying in the italian alps we had a good fortune of staying at a house with a wood burning oven. The pizza party we had there was one of the highlights of our holiday, and here is a couple of the pics!!

 

[pdswife]

I'm on my way to your place for
dinner. I'd love to try the white pizza.

Boy, it's gonna be a long day. I'm going to Tan's for breakfast
and Italy for dinner. COOL! lol

 

[urmaniac13]

Si, si, si, any time my friend, you and your hubby are always welcome!!

 

[Floridagirl]

Hi Licia,

sitting already in the train it's not too far from Bavaria (where I am right now) to Rome ..there are fast night trains ;-)....don`t worry ... just joking

@pds....maybe you should ask "Scotty"...beaming is faster..

Licia thanks for posting this authentic recipe!!!! I think I'll go and visit my best friend this weekend, she doesn't care that much for cooking and baking and is always delighted if I'm taking over the kitchen I think I'll try the pizza and for dessert the begian waffles!

Hm looking at the pics I actually can smell the delicious pizza!!!

In Germany the italian restaurants are always serving the thin crust pizzas as you described them. That's why many Germans love to eat pizza in the states. They love the
american-italian thick crust pizzas

BTW what kind of flour is manitoba?

Iris

PS/ Still some peanut butter cookies left?

 

[urmaniac13]

Manitoba is so called because it originally come from the Manitoba region (Canada). This flour, when mixed with water, forms a very high quantity of gluten while kneading and being cooked. Thus it is considered a "strong" type of flour suited for certain breads and doughs. Probably you are familiar with type "0" flour, (type 00 is the equivalent to the regular "all purpose") you can use a little extra percentage of type 0 to get the manitoba like effect... in Italy we also have "pizza flour", already blended for pizza... see if you can find this in a big store...
And yes!! Whenever you feel like a little excursion from Germany, our door always have a welcome sign on for you too!!

 

[urmaniac13]

PS/ Still some peanut butter cookies left?

Incredibly, it still remains in the form of PB for the moment. Last night while I was scrambling around the freezer for something else I came upon a package of Phyllo dough, I got the sudden inspiration to do the baklava!! So I got distracted today but we are going to see Cris's kids Saturday, I will make sure to have them ready for them!!

 

[Michael in FtW]

A couple of years ago I set out to understand the differences between Italian and American flours. While Italian recipes called for Type 00 flour for pasta in recipes Italian (born and raised in Italy) TV cooks said to just use All Purpose flour. After about 6 months I gave up and accepted their word for it ... flours in Italy, Germany, France, and America are not graded the same and thus there is no way to really understand, translate or equate them.

With the exception of Manitoba flour - which has it's own unique problems with translating and understanding calibration - which I "think" comes down to how finely it it ground - RMC, N, etc.

Anyway - Manitoba flour, as I understand it, is simply semolina flour ground from durum wheat grown in, and imported from, Manitoba, Canada. Semolina nazionale is ground from domesically grown Italian durum wheat. If I remember right I ran across an Italian law that stipulates this ....

Am I right Licia?

The is nothing in this world like a pizza cooked in a wood fired oven. We had a place open in Golden, CO about 6-months before I left that was an instant hit!

Please oh PLEASE post a recipe for pizza bianco, Licia!

 

[urmaniac13]

I too often encounter problems in finding the equivalent between the flours graded in Italy and the ones from English speaking world, or somewhere else. Actually it was after I came to Italy when I learned to use different type of flours, and I never had even heard of Manitoba before that. The strength of "Manitoba" flour, from what I understand, comes from special milling process combining the variety of wheat grown in that particular region (Manitoba, Canada). I am honestly not sure if durum wheat is a part of the ingredient, but "manitoba" is not considered an ideal flour for pasta making, whereas durum semolina is. I will need to study a little more in depth about this!!

 

[urmaniac13]

Some variations of my favourite white pizzas, le pizze bianche.

-courgette/zucchini flowers (carefully remove the stem and the centre part containing the pollen, arrange over the pizza, salt to taste and sprinkles of extra virgin olive oil and pizza spice/herbs. Add the shredded mozzarella a little before finish baking. If preferred, also add some filleted strips of sardins.

-thinly sliced mushrooms, (optional-crumbled spicy sausages), and chopped flat leaf parsleys. extra virgin olive oil and pizza spice/herbs, then later mozzarella.

-slices of smoked scamorza cheese and speck, dash of black pepper

-finely sliced onions and bell peppers, extra virgine olive oil, pizza herbs/spices, salt. (very good without cheese)

-very thinly sliced potatoes, sprinkles of rosemary, garlic powder, extra virgine olive oil and salt

-4 cheese sauce. to make the sauce dice up gorgonzola, fontina, taleggio and gouda (depend on availability you can substitute some of them with any cheese that melts well, such as edam and ementar... also grated parmigiano can be used...but try to find and use some gorgonzola, it really gives the sauce a nice piquant flavour... and AVOID ANYTHING LIKE VELVEETA.) Put them on the double boiler or on a pot with very low heat, melt the cheese. Add some half and half or fresh cream and milk as needed, and a dash of white pepper. Stir often and keep on cooking until it becomes a smooth thick sauce. If prefered sprinkle with crumbled cooked bacon.
This sauce is also brilliant with pasta or gnocchi. On your pizza just spread across and bake it.

Though Italians do not eat "pepperoni pizzas" (well, as many people know them--- if you order that in Italy, most likely you will get a pizza with bell pepper on it, unless it is a pizzeria caters mostly to foreign tourists!!) there are wide variety to what you can do with your pizza. You can also use your imagination and create your own favourites!!

 

[Floridagirl]

yes I also had my problems with the difference from the flour in Germany and those I can get in Fl.
In Germany they have type designations like 405 (which is like the all purpose flour), 550, 1050 .....1800 (bruised grain). The number describes the mineral content in mg per 100 g of dry-matter.

 

[Floridagirl]

I also like the white pizza. Thanks for all the recipes Licia!!!!!!!!!

I make my favorite white with, fresh spinach, artichokes, speck, onions, fresh mozzarella ... sprinkled with a little olive oil.... yumm ;-)

 

[cc2003btw]

There's one great white pizza i know of, you sweat about 3 whole onions with a couple of cloves of garlic until theyre all lovely and golden, then spread that over the base. On top, drape a few tins of anchovies in olive oil.