To make digestible and light doughs, with the crunchiness The outside and the soft, airy inside that characterizes Roman-style pizzas and pinsas require a blend of flours specifically designed for this purpose.
The company Di Marco, which in 2001 invented the Roman Pinsa, offers various mixes to the professional market, specific for Pinsa, but also other lines designed for the different pizza formats (round, peel and pan), precisely to obtain the maximum in every preparation.
THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER IN THE DOUGH
Flours are therefore very important, but a key role also belongs to thewaterfall which is added during the kneading phase and which must be gradually released in the various preparation phases, especially during cooking. The function of water is to give lightness to the dough and to interact with the different flours in the mix on which the color, aroma and consistency of the pizza and pinsa bases depend.
In fact, as far as the world of baking is concerned, usually, in pizzas a highly hydrated doughallows you to obtain a lighter and more digestible pizza compared to a less hydrated dough.
Depending on whether the product to be made is a pinsa, a round pizza, in a pan or on a shovel, the amount of water used in the dough will be different. For example, in the case of the Pinsa Romana made with the Di Marco mix, the amount of water needed is much higher than average: 800 g for every kg of flour.
WATER TEMPERATURE
Of course, in a highly hydrated dough like that of Pinsa Romana, it is not enough to pour the water and wait for it to take effect: the trick also lies in the temperature. In fact, using very cold water, stored in the refrigerator or after a short time in the freezer, can help to obtain a better result.
By doing this, the gluten mesh will form more easily, preventing the dough from rising too quickly and developing acidity.
If, as we have said, water is one of the key ingredients to make the pinsa dough so light and digestible, we must also admit that its benefits do not stop there. In fact, water also helps to dissolve the lumps in the dough and, during cooking, some water is retained by the rice flour to maintain internal softness, while the outside must dry well to make the classic crunch when you cut or bite into it.
THE CHOICE OF CONDIMENTS
More generally, when talking about water, we must consider the water contained in the toppings. A pizza that is too “wet” can be recognized when, in the act of biting into a slice, the tip suddenly falls downwards, spilling all the toppings onto the plate.
Tomato pulp and mozzarella are in fact very full of water while cold cuts or aged cheeses are less so. From the right level of humidity and hydration of your pinsa (or pizza), both of the dough and of the toppings, depends on the final result. Failure to respect the balance between dry and moist in the toppings leads to a pizza or pinsa that is too soft, or vice versa, too dry.
So, if mathematics is not an opinion, the final result depends on the right amount of water in the dough and the correct proportion of the toppings, that is, a pinsa that is easy to cut and has a characteristic honeycomb appearance, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
And you, did you already know how important water was for the success of a perfect Pinsa Romana?
