Pinsa Romana – Mix up your pizza world

At first glance, you might think: well, it’s a pizza. But with so many things in life, the essential is hidden from the eye. The dough for pinsa Romana is made with multiple types of flours. In this case, it’s a flour-leaf clover of crispy Italian-style tastiness.

One obvious question might be: why even go through the hassle of mixing all those many types of flours when the ‘real’ deal, pizza, is already perfectly perfect as it is? Due to the mix of flour, pinsa actually has about 50 percent less sugar and also less gluten, so it’s healthier than the classic original. Well: healthy-ish. Right? I’m not going to pretend it’s on the same level like munching on a bunch of broccoli, but it’s definitely a notch up. Without affecting taste.

So what’s the downside? Pinsa dough loves a good rest. Ideally, you want to prepare the dough 2 days prior to planing your big pinsa party. Give it this time to properly ferment. So with pinsa, it’s ‘all about that base’ to borrow a bit from that Meghan Trainor song.

Pinsa romana at a glance

• Cuisine: Italian
• Difficulty level: Easy
• Servings: 2
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Rest time: 48 hours
• Oven time: 15 minutes

Ingredients for the pinsa dough

• 1.3 cups (165 grams) of pizza flour (or all-purpose wheat flour), plus a bit more for rolling the dough out and dusting
• 1/4 cup (30 grams) of rye flour
• 1/4 cup (30 grams) of rice flour
• 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour (alternatively: soy flour)
• 2/3 cups (150 ml) of water
• 1/4 teaspoon of dry yeast
• 0.5 teaspoons of olive oil
• 0.5 teaspoons of salt

Ingredients for the pinsa Romana topping

• 0.5 cups of pizza sauce
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• A handful of cherry tomatos
• Fresh basil

How to prepare pinsa Romana

Add all the flours to a large bowl and mix it with the dry yeast and salt. Next add the water and olive oil. Knead all the ingredients into a dough. Form a dough ball and drizzle a bit of flour on top. Wrap the dough in clean film and then let it chill in the fridge for about 48 hours. Bam, you’re down with the most important step on road to pinsa Romana heaven.

Take the dough out of the fridge about 2 hours before you actually plan on having your pinsa Romana to bring it up to room temperature.

Separate the dough into two parts and roll each into a flatbread shape a.k.a. your pinsa.

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C) on air circulation mode.

Apply the pizza sauce and add your toppings of choice.

Bake your pinsa Romana for about 12-15 minutes (this one depends a bit on how thick/thin you rolled out your dough).

Congratulations, you did it! Enjoy.

A picture says more than a 1,000 words