Pizza Bianca

This is no doubt a strange option for my first “pizza” offering, but I really couldn’t resist keeping it simple.  I love the idea of this almost abstentious pizza.  It is often the most simple things that keep you coming back again and again.  In this case, it is just well-developed dough flavor, courtesy of a long fermentation, good olive oil, salt, and rosemary.  A staple in Rome, I think you may find many uses for it around your home as well.  I think it makes a smashing addition to a cheeseboard, or a great starter.  I think it could also sit happily next to salad for lunch at work a great game of wish I was in Italy.

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Pizza Bianca

Ingredients

  • 500 grams 17.5 ounces, about 3 1/4 cups bread flour
  • 10 grams .34 ounces, about 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 5 grams .18 ounces, about 1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 375 grams 13.25 ounces, 1 cup plus 10.5 tablespoons lukewarm water
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Coarse sea salt (to taste) definitely not wanting fine here, but kosher can work in a pinch
  • 1-2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary leaves

Instructions

  1. Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl and stir together. Add water and stir until no dry flour remains. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature overnight.

  2. The next day, lightly flour the dough and your hands. Scrape dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured piece of parchment paper set inside a rimmed baking sheet and scrape dough into the paper. Dust with flour and cover with a clean kitchen towel. allow to rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

  3. 30 minutes before baking, heat your oven and a pizza stone to 500 degrees F. Gently stretch the dough into an even rectangular shape using your fingertips.  I like to stretch and push the dough so I leave little indentations throughout the top.  Try not to go all the way through the dough, however, like you would for a focaccia. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and rosemary.   I would say you want to stick to about 1/4-1/2 teaspoons depending on your preference for saltiness.  Transfer entire baking sheet with dough onto the pizza stone in the oven.

  4. Bake for 10 minutes just until the pizza is slightly firm on the bottom.  Transfer pizza to bake directly on the baking stone ( find this is best accomplished by taking the pizza out of the oven, making sure it is completely loose from the parchment with a metal spatula and then sliding it on to the stone).  Continue cooking until burnished golden brown, about 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting into rectangular slices, and serving.