Sublime

Tartine Bread

What differentiates the Roman style, though, is the thinness of the crust. The Roman pizza is the same diameter as the Neapolitan pizza, but uses about half the dough.

Pizzeria la Smorfia—the local favorite for pizza—cooks up good pizza to eat in or take out. Pizzas come in two sizes; the large can feed three (small pizzas-€6-8, large pizzas-€14-19, Fri-Wed 11:30-24:00, closed Thu except June-Aug, Via Vittorio Emanuele 73, tel. 0187-818-395).

I compromise by getting a cast-iron surface really, really hot over my largest gas burner, while I build up my pizza on a semolina-dusted peel. The thick cast iron holds plenty of heat to cook the pizza. When the pizza is ready to go, I slide it onto the pan and stick it straight under the grill, which has been preheating equally hot. After you’ve

Diastatic malt (see this page); you’ll need only a small amount—a few teaspoons or about 9 grams per pizza; look for it online or at a local home-brewing supply store

HOW MANY DOUGH BALLS? The Neapolitan and New York–style pizza recipes in this book tell you to divide the dough into three equal pieces between 260 and 285 grams each. For Roman pizzas, you should divide the dough into five pieces of 150 grams each. If you don’t want that many dough balls, just cut the recipe in half. For bar pizzas, the Bar Pizza

Which brings us to cappellacci, big hats, the big brothers of cappelletti (little hats). This plump and generous shape is typical of the city of Ferrara, where the filling is a velvet purée of pumpkin and cheese, the sauce butter and sage. Just writing their name makes me want to jump on a train and spend the day in Ferrara, half red-brick Renaissa

Italian whole peeled tomatoes. The richness of their flavor and their balanced acidity—perfect for pizza. Right now we are blending Rega and Ciao brand tomatoes to get the flavor and consistency that work for us.