The Pinsa Romana is similar to an ordinary pizza, but is said to be more digestible. We will explain to you what is behind the trend from Italy and how you can prepare Pinsa yourself.
For several years, a trend dish has been spreading from Italy that not only resembles pizza in name: the pinsa. They are also called Pinsa Romana, because the Romans are said to have enjoyed eating the pastry. But the recipe was forgotten until it was rediscovered in the last decade.
What makes the pinsa romana so popular? Above all, it is their dough that is said to be more digestible than pizza dough. It consists of a mixture of wheat, rice and soy or chickpea flour and Italian sourdough (“lievito madre”). The rice flour is supposed to loosen up the dough, the soy flour ensures good binding and proteins and the sourdough is supposed to make the pinsa romana easier to digest.
The long rising time also contributes to this: the dough of the pinsa should rest for up to 72 hours or more. The ongoing fermentation processes not only make the dough very airy, but are also supposed to relieve the digestive tract of some of its work. However, there are still no systematic scientific comparative studies between the digestibility of pinsa and pizza. More about this here: This is why many people can no longer tolerate bread.
In the next sections you will find out how you can bake and topping Pinsa Romana yourself without Lievito Madre.
Pinsa Romana: The recipe for the special dough
For four pins you need:
350 g flour type 405 or 550
50 g wholemeal spelled flour
75 g rice flour
25 g chickpea flour or soy flour
0.5g of fresh yeast or 0.2g of fresh yeast and 50g of Lievito Madre
approx. 300 ml cold water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
Directions:
Mix the flours together in a large bowl.
Dissolve the yeast and salt each in a portion of the water.
Add yeast water, salt water, olive oil and, if necessary, Lievito Madre to the flour mixture. Knead the ingredients for about ten minutes until you have a smooth dough. Add some more water if needed.
Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes, kneading it briefly every ten minutes.
Place the dough in a large sealable container and refrigerate for 48 to 72 hours.
On baking day, take the dough out of the fridge 2-3 hours before you use it to let it come to room temperature.
Knead the dough briefly and divide it into four pieces of dough. Cover them with a tea towel and let them rise again for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees circulating air. Note: For most dishes you can do without preheating the oven and thus save energy. Preheating the pinsa romana (just like pizza or tarte flambée) makes sense, however, because it only needs to be baked for a short time, but it should be nice and crispy. The ovens of professional pizzerias reach much higher temperatures.
Pull the dough pieces apart in an oval or round shape. Be careful to break as few air bubbles as possible. The dough does not have to be as thin as pizza dough.
Place the pins on an oiled baking sheet and top them with ingredients of your choice.
Bake the pins for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Tasty toppings for pinsa romana
You can eat the Pinsa pure or top it like a pizza, for example with:
- tomato sauce
- fresh seasonal vegetables
- cheese or vegan yeast melt
- fresh herbs
- aromatic olive oil
The only thing to keep in mind is that the Pinsa Romana is only briefly in the oven, just like a pizza. This means that you should pre-cook vegetables or cut them very thinly. It’s also a good idea not to cover the pinsa too thickly, as that could make them mushy (and harder to eat).
