Sourdough Pizza Bianca

This sourdough pizza bianca is leavened with a sourdough starter and is made entirely by hand with the no-knead method. 

 

This pizza bianca is an attempt to recreate the pizza bianco alla Romano from Forno Campo de' Fiori, a bakery in Rome that serves pizza by the slice. 

Of course, their pizza bianca is about a 6 feet long flatbread and it is baked in a wood-fired oven, right in front of your eyes. Once the pizza is done, your slice/square is cut right in front of you. I'm not quite there yet, but I love using tools such as baking stones and kitchen hacks for recreating the wood-fired oven environment. 

About Pizza Bianca: 

In the U.S., pizza bianca refers to pizza without red sauce or tomato sauce, either with just cheese or with a white sauce. In Rome, pizza bianca is much simpler... flour, water, salt, and yeast, plus a tiny bit of sugar. It's brushed with some olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, shaped, and then baked... no cheese, no sauce, and no other toppings are added before baking. You give it a final brush of olive oil after baking and perhaps sprinkle on some rosemary or other herbs. 

It's essentially a thinner and crispier version of focaccia, minus the abundance of olive oil that is typically in focaccia dough. 

While the name may translate to "white pizza," in Rome, as Jim Lahey says in his book, My Bread, the name "almost naked pizza" might be a better term. 

In Rome, it is eaten for breakfast, the same way that we enjoy a slice of toast. After baking, you can eat it plain or smear it with your favorite sweet or savory topping. I loved it topped with a three-cheese spread and then toasted again until the cheeses were all bubbly. 

We also split leftovers lengthwise and used them for sandwiches. This pizza is also perfect for dipping in soups, stews, and as a substitute for dinner rolls. 

To Make Pizza Bianca: 

You will need a biga, which is firmer than your sourdough starter. If you don't have one on hand, you will need at least 24 hours to create one from your active 100% hydration sourdough starter. 

Once your biga is ready, mix together the dough ingredients and let them rise until bouyant and bubbly, about five to seven hours. At this point, if you like, you can refrigerate the dough until the next day. 

After that, divide the dough in half and form each half into a ball and spread the tops with olive oil. Sprinkle the tops with sea salt. Let the balls to sit and rise for one to three hours. 

When the dough is ready, shape it into flat rounds by docking it with your fingertips and stretching it as needed. 

Bake the pizzas, one at a time, on a hot pizza stone, until browned. 

Finally, brush the baked pizza with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with flaked sea salt and herbs of your choice. 

Equipment You May Need:

Baking Stone: It's a great surface for browning the bottom of the pizza and helping the oven stay hot like a wood-fired oven. If you don't have a baking stone, you can bake the pizzas on half-sheet pans. 

Pizza Peel: For transferring the pizza to the baking stone. 

Parchment Paper: While more talented bakers can easily slide the pizzas onto the stone without parchment, I haven't quite mastered it. I shape the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet, and then use the pizza peel to transfer the dough, parchment and all, to the baking stone. Use good quality, thicker, parchment so that it doesn't stick to the dough as it bakes. 

You will love the crispy crust and the light and airy interior. 

Make-Ahead and Leftovers:

You can keep leftovers at room temperature in a loosely closed plastic bag for about three days. Otherwise, freeze any leftovers and reheat when ready to serve. 

This pizza is easily reheated (including from frozen) for about 5 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees F in a toaster oven or oven. 

My goal in making this pizza was to find a flatbread that is flavorful, that could keep for a few days without getting super stale, and that I could repurpose for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Using sourdough was also an added bonus. 

Plus, I didn't want to get yelled at by the Italian Bread Police! (We'll see).... 

This pizza bianca fit the bill. I also loved that I could make it over one day, or let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator if I needed to. I'll be making this pizza bianca again and again. 

P.S. For the optional herbs, I used dried herbes de Provence.. not exactly Italian, but delicious. Fresh rosemary or flat-leaf parsley are also wonderful, as well as Middle Eastern blends such as za'atar. 

Bread Bakers:

Welcome to this Month's Bread Bakers! Our theme is flatbreads. I've made many, including sourdough and Greek yogurt flatbread, Mana'eesh (Palestinian Flatbread), Nan e Barbari (Persian flatbread), Hallakakor (Scandinavian flatbread), and Uzbek stamped bread. 

• Eggless Naan from Sneha's Recipes
• Focaccia Bread Art from Passion Kneaded
• Magical Oreo Paratha from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Nan-e-Barbari from Ambrosia
• Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Pizza Bianca from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Sourdough Pizza Bianca

Yield: 16 slices

Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories

Prep time: 45 MinCook time: 20 MinInactive time: 24 HourTotal time: 25 H & 5 M

This sourdough pizza bianca is leavened with a sourdough starter and is made entirely by hand with a no-knead method.

Ingredients

For the Biga

• Note: You will only need 100 grams (about half) of this biga for this bread. You can save the rest for making 2 more pizzas, or use it for other breads such as ciabatta. Throw it in any ciabatta or focaccia dough, even if it's yeasted, for added flavor.
• 70 grams (scant 1/3 cup) room temperature water
• 10 grams (scant tablespoon) active sourdough starter (100 percent hydration by weight) recently fed and bubbly
• 100 grams (1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons) unbleached all purpose flour
• .1 gram (small pinch) fine sea salt

For the Pizzas

• 400 grams (2 3/4 cups) unbleached bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 5 grams (1 teaspoon sugar)
• 5 grams (scant 1 teaspoon) fine sea salt
• 350 grams (1 1/4 cups) room-temperature water
• 100 grams of the biga
• Extra virgin olive oil (about 3 to 4 tablespoons) for brushing the dough before and after baking.
• 8 grams (1 1/8 teaspoons) coarse sea salt.
• Fresh or dried herbs for serving (optional).

Instructions

To Make the Biga

1. In a small bowl, mix together the water and starter. Add the flour and salt, and mix. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for about 24 hours, until tripled in size.
2. If you're not ready to begin making the pizzas, unrefrigerate biga stays fresh for a day or two. You can also refrigerate the biga for up to a week before using.

To Make the Pizzas

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and sea salt.
2. In another bowl, combine the biga and water and whisk until the biga is fully dissolved. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and quickly mix by hand or wooden spoon until everything is combined. The dough will look rough and shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Stretch and fold the dough once from all four "sides." Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and let rise until bubbly and increased in size by 30 percent. At this point, you can shape the dough, or refrigerate overnight, which is what I did. If you refrigerate the dough, let it sit at room temperature the next day for about an hour before dividing.
4. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a ball. Place each half onto a separate piece of floured parchment paper, seam side down. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with the sea salt. Let rise, uncovered, until doubled, about 1 to 3 hours.
5. Heat the oven, with a baking stone on the middle rack, to 500 degrees F.
6. Gently stretch each dough ball into about an 8-inch disk with your hands. Next, "dock" the dough with your oiled fingertips to dimple and help the dough grow into a larger round.
7. Next, working with only one piece of dough, continue docking and stretching the dough into a 12-inch round. Slide the pizza peel under the parchment and transfer the dough, parchment and all, onto the baking stone. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top of the pizza "bubbles" are browned, but the lower parts are still light colored.
8. Slide the fully cooked pizza onto a wire rack to cool and repeat with the second dough round.
9. Brush the cooked pizzas with olive oil and sprinkle with the optional fresh or dried herbs. Slice and serve.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

98

Fat (grams)

1 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

0 g

Carbs (grams)

18 g

Fiber (grams)

1 g

Net carbs

18 g

Sugar (grams)

0 g

Protein (grams)

3 g

Cholesterol (grams)

0 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2024/09/sourdough-pizza-bianca.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

pizza, flatbread

Bread

Italian

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Recipe adapted from The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook by Jim Lahey. I recommend all of his books, incuding My Pizza, and My Bread. Each book has a version (or two) of pizza bianca. 

If you don't have a sourdough starter, no worries. All three books have a recipe version that uses instant yeast. 

Sources regarding Roman Pizza Bianca also inlude Serious Eats and Conde Nast Traveler.