Pizza Alla Pala.
A metre of dough, three days of waiting, a stone floor at 320 degrees. Pizza alla pala is what Romans eat between meetings and after work, standing up, on a square of paper.
Cold fermentation
At four degrees, enzymes do quietly what yeast can only do loudly. After three days the crumb is open, the flavour is closer to bread than to dough, and the slice sits lighter than it looks.
Italian flour
Tipo 0 and 00 from mills in Lazio and Emilia, blended for protein. Hydration runs above eighty percent, which is why the dough has to be folded by hand rather than mixed to death.
La pala
A wooden paddle a metre long carries the dough straight onto the stone. The crust crackles because the oven floor is hot enough to set the base before the crumb has time to weigh it down.
Ingredients, named
San Marzano DOP from Agro Sarnese-Nocerino. Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP. Mortadella Bologna IGP. Parmigiano Reggiano aged twenty-four months. The labels are on the box if you want to read them.
"In Crust We Trust."
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