Bonci’s roman style pizza

Roman Style pizza is the best homemade pizza you can make and eat. It takes some time to prep, but a slice of this pizza is what heaven tastes like. This I follow Bonci’s method, a quite peculiar way to raise the dough: you ferment it in the fridge overnight and with no effort you get a sourdough pizza perfectly baked in a regular oven.

Gabriele Bonci is a legend in Italy, it’s not a chance we call him the king of Pizza. He makes the best roman style pizza in the world and his shops are a place of pilgrimage (don’t miss them next time you visit Rome). He is a very tall man, he seems intimidating but he’s actually very sweet when he talks about bread, pizza, and toppings.  He has recently blessed us all with a reality show where he goes around Italy judging the best bakeries and eating lots of bread. I have no idea if they have translated this tv show in other languages, but even if you don’t speak Italian, watch it. Pizza’s language is universal.

Roman-style pizza is not so well known abroad, for no reason really. It’s always sold by slice, and you usually eat it as mid-afternoon snack (ah la dolce vita!). This pizza has often a rectangular shape, it has a dough similar to the focaccia one, full of bubbles and comfortably soft. Every topping you can imagine goes on top, from traditional potatoes and onions to wasabi and salmon.

This is also the type of pizza Italians tend to make at home. This always shocks my friends abroad but it’s very rare Italians make pizza at home. Most of us just buy it as it’s cheap and it tastes so much better when cooked in a proper wooden fire pizza oven. At home we will make pizza using a rectangular oven tray, go wild with the toppings, and share the joy of a soft thick slice with the rest of the family.

Going back to Bonci, the king of pizza…well the guy invented a method to make a quick fake sourdough with no effort to make a roman-style pizza you can then perfectly bake in a regular oven with results that mirrors the ones of the expensive wooden fire pizza oven. Yes, that’s one of the many reasons we love him.

He started a whole movement of cold fermented dough taking over the kitchens of many pizza aficionados.

Where is the catch you are asking? This pizza takes time and planning.

You need to start the day ahead, quickly mix the ingredients, fold the dough four times, let them mingle in the fridge for around 12-24 hours. You then take the dough out from the fridge for one more hour of napping, bake the pizza for 25 minutes.

But, it is worth it. A slice of this pizza is what heaven tastes like.

I made this pizza on repeat during lockdown and it’s now part of my weekly routine – this pizza is a smile on my face every Sunday night.

I slightly adapted Bonci’s method to what works best for me, my tiny kitchen, and my big stomach. I skip some folding steps and keep it in the fridge for 10 hours only, as this is as much waiting I can cope with. I also use wholemeal flour and a bit more water consequently. It works every time.

I hope Bonci would approve of my slightly changed method and hope you’ll give it a go. Just a word of warning: once you try it, you’ll never stop making (and eating) it.