Roman white pizza with mortadella: the queen of street food

The Roman white pizza stuffed with mortadella is the street food par excellence of the capital. Here's how to prepare it with the original recipe!

The Italian culinary tradition is full of dishes "born by chance" and the recipe for white pizza is one of those. In fact, the bakers who used to use a piece of pizza dough, white and without toppings, would never have expected it to become the protagonist of a new Roman street food : the white focaccia.

Over time, this soft white pizza met mortadella , giving life to a sort of sandwich with an unsurpassed taste. Typical of Rome, white pizza with the original recipe is very simple to prepare.

How to make Roman-style white pizza

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour , dehydrated yeast and sugar . Run the machine at medium speed and slowly pour in the warm water .
2. When it has been absorbed, slowly add the oil , waiting until the dough has joined the hook before continuing with the preparation. It will take about 15 minutes .
3. Then transfer everything onto a floured pastry board and proceed with two rounds of tri-folds : widen the dough with your hands, roughly giving it the shape of a rectangle a couple of centimeters thick. Holding the long side towards you, imagine dividing it with two vertical lines, so as to obtain three equal rectangles. Fold the left one over the central one and the right one over the left one.
4. Wait 10 minutes then repeat the operation. It is advisable to make the folds with hands greased with oil as the dough will be quite soft and sticky.
5. Transfer to rise in a bowl covered with cling film for 3 hours in the oven with the light on, then place it in the fridge overnight (12 hours).
6. After leaving it at room temperature, spread it in a pan with a well-oiled bottom measuring approximately 35×30 cm , using only your fingertips. Let rise for an hour.
7. Drizzle the surface with a drizzle of oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and cook at 220°C for 20 minutes . It should be soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside.
8. Let it cool before serving it with the mortadella , not cutting it in half, but using two squares of dough, "in the Roman way".

If you want to try homemade pizza, here is our recipe for preparing the original Neapolitan one!

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