Pizza Rossa | Roman-Style “Red Pizza” Recipe

Rome has many pizza styles, and this is one of our favorites. It’s a classic Roman street food, that you can pick up in any bakery. What makes this pizza unique is its simplicity: a crispy crust topped with a very flavorful tomato sauce. No cheese, no toppings. Don’t let the simplicity fool you, it’s perfectly delicious and adding more will ruin what makes it so great!

Pizza Rossa | Roman-Style “Red Pizza” Recipe

One great advantage of pizza rossa is how it doesn’t need to be served hot and fresh in order to be fully enjoyed. Served at room temperature or even reheated in a warm oven, it’s just as yummy.

Pizza Rossa vs. Neapolitan Pizza

On paper, pizza rossa is a little bit more complicated to make than “normal” pizza alla Napoletana. The dough requires a few more ingredients, a few more steps, and you’ll really want a stand mixer to pull it off in a timely manner.

However, this Roman pizza is actually much easier to perfect than Neapolitan pizza. Anyone can make it with little practice, and you don’t need a fancy pizza oven to make it properly.

A Note on Ingredients

Like all pizza, flour makes an enormous difference in the final result. The biggest mistake we see home pizza cooks make is using flour that doesn’t have nearly enough protein/gluten content. All-purpose flour simply won’t work, and even a lot of products that are marketed as “pizza flour” fall short. Look for a high protein flour (around 15% protein content) such as a Manitoba flour. It might be tricky to find in a local shop, but it can easily be sourced online and will come in very useful for all kinds of pizza.

Because baking pizza dough is more of a science than an art, we have listed some ingredients below in grams and milliliters, which are much more precise than cups and tablespoons.

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PIZZA ROSSA RECIPE

Makes: Four small pizzas

Cook Time: About 10 hours, largely unattended, plus a 16-20 hour overnight rest. We recommend starting the recipe 26 to 30 hours before you plan on cooking the pizza. For example, if you wanted to have the pizza at 6pm, you would start the prep at around 8 pm or later the previous day so that the dough has time to ferment properly in the fridge.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 28 ounce (800 g) can of whole peeled tomatoes, or tomato puree

• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus extra for drizzling and greasing

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• Dried oregano, to taste

• 4 teaspoons (20 g) sea salt for the dough, plus extra to taste for the tomato sauce

• 500 grams Manitoba flour

• 80 milliliters whole milk

• 1 teaspoon (4 g) active dry yeast

• ½ teaspoon (1 g) diastatic malt powder (or substitute with ½ tablespoon honey)

• Semolina flour for dusting

If you’re using whole peeled tomatoes (which we recommend over puree, although both will work) blend the tomatoes. In a bowl, combine the tomato puree with 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil, the tomato paste, and dried oregano/salt to taste. Mix thoroughly, then cover and let it rest in the fridge overnight.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine the Manitoba flour, milk, and 200 ml of water. Mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until a very rough, crumbly dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours.

Add the rested dough into the bowl of a stand mixer, tearing it into small chunks to help it combine with the rest of the ingredients. Add the yeast, malt powder, and 100 ml of water. Mix all together with a dough hook using a medium/low speed until well-incorporated (this can take time, be patient).

While continuing to mix, add the salt. Once the salt has been evenly mixed in, add 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil. Keep mixing until the oil is well incorporated and the dough is even.

Remove the dough from the mixer and place it on a smooth work surface liberally greased with olive oil. Fold the dough in half 5 to 6 times and form it into a smooth ball. Cover the dough ball with a large bowl and let it rest for 1 hour.

After an hour, remove the bowl and grease the inside with some olive oil. Place the dough into the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap or a lid, and put it in the fridge. Let the dough rest overnight, for 16 to 20 hours.

Remove the dough bowl from the fridge and place it in a warm place (you can put it in the oven with the light on) and let it rise for 4 hours.

Remove the dough from the oven. Preheat the oven and a large non-stick baking tray to 485° F (250° C).

Transfer the dough onto a work surface and cut it into four equal pieces. Very gently (so as not to disturb the precious bubbles) fold/roll each piece up so that it has a slightly elongated shape, kind of like a burrito. Cover the dough portions with a clean towel and let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Pour about 1 cup of semolina flour into a pile on a work surface. Place one dough portion into the flour, then flip it to coat both sides in semolina. Move the dough to a clear space and begin pressing and spreading it out with your fingertips, starting with the edges and working toward the center. Spread it out into a thin oval, about 12 inches (30 cm) long. Set it aside and repeat with the rest of the dough portions.

Now begins the cooking process, which needs to be done quickly. We recommend reading the next steps carefully before you begin. Have your tomato sauce, some olive oil, a spoon and a wire rack ready. Also, make sure you have a safe (heat resistant) area where you can place a hot baking sheet near where you’ve prepared the dough. Because most ovens will only be able to fit one large tray at a time on a single rack, you’ll cook two pizzas at a time. If you have a very large oven, you can cook them all together.

Remove the preheated baking tray from the oven and keep it next to the dough. Take one dough oval, stretch it gently with your hands lengthwise until it’s about the length of the baking sheet, and place it on the hot tray. Repeat with a second dough portion.

Quickly spread a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce evenly over each pizza on the sheet, and drizzle them with a little olive oil. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 10 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven and carefully transfer the half-cooked pizzas onto a wire rack. Immediately, stretch and place the third and fourth pizzas on the hot tray, and season them with sauce and olive oil. Bake these pizzas on the bottom rack as before, for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, transfer the new pizzas onto a wire rack and place the previous pizzas back on the tray. Drizzle them with a little more olive oil and bake on a middle rack for 5 minutes, then remove from the tray and set aside.

Place the last pizzas from the wire rack back onto the baking tray, drizzle them with oil, and bake on a middle rack for 5 minutes.

Just to recap, these are the basic steps for each pizza:

• Stretch and season on hot baking sheet

• Bake on a bottom rack for 10 minutes

• Let cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes

• Bake again on a middle rack for 5 minutes

When making all four pizzas, two at a time, the sequence is this:

• Stretch and season 1st/2nd pizzas on hot baking sheet

• Bake 1st/2nd pizzas on bottom rack for 10 minutes

• Cool 1st/2nd pizzas on wire rack while you bake 3rd/4th pizzas

• Cool 3rd/4th pizzas while you re-bake 1st/2nd pizzas for 5 minutes

• Re-bake 3rd/4th pizzas for 5 minutes

The finished pizzas can be served warm and fresh, or at room temperature within a day. Drizzle with olive oil before serving.

Buon appetito!