Pinsa has experienced a real hype in recent years. For a long time, it was considered the original form of pizza, but this later turned out to be a clever marketing coup. In its current form, the Pinsa Romana was only invented in Rome in 2001. However, the basic principle of baked and topped flatbread, such as pizza, focaccia and fougasse, of course goes back much further. Pinsa is characterized by a long dough resting time of 48 hours. In addition, the dough contains not only wheat flour, but also rice and chickpea flour. This version does not require yeast and is only made with sourdough. This makes the pinsa particularly aromatic and digestible.
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What is the difference between pizza and pinsa?
While pizza dough usually only consists of wheat flour and durum wheat semolina, the dough for pinsa contains different types of flour. In addition, pinsa is usually not round but elongated and is often only topped after baking.
What flour do you need for pinsa?
In addition to bread flour (wheat flour type 550 or Tipo 00), Pinsa also consists of rice flour and chickpea flour. These flours provide additional flavor and stability in the dough. Such specialty flours can be very expensive. That’s why I like to use my grain mill* for this. I use it to grind dry rice and dried chickpeas as finely as possible.
Why is pinsa healthier than pizza?
The different flours ensure that pinsa is a little healthier than classic pizza. Pinsa contains fewer carbohydrates, fewer calories and more protein than pizza. In addition, the long dough fermentation and the sourdough make pinsa particularly digestible. Otherwise, of course, it depends on what you top your pizza with. A healthier option would be grilled vegetables with burrata and fresh rocket, for example.
How long the flatbread has to bake
You can bake the pinsa either without topping or with topping. Without topping, the pinsa takes around 15 minutes at 250 °C. With topping, it can take up to five minutes longer – depending on how thick the topping is. You can also pre-bake the pinsa bases, freeze them and then top them like a frozen pizza and bake them again. I would only bake them for 12 minutes so that they don’t get too dark after baking.
You can top the pinsa with this after baking
I can top the raw pinsa bases and bake them like a pizza. This is particularly suitable if you want melted cheese on your pinsa. However, I prefer to bake the bases separately and then top them with anti-pasti ingredients, such as olives, grilled vegetables, pickled peppers and burrata or feta cheese. Everything is then topped with good olive oil and balsamic to taste.
You will need these ingredients for easy sourdough pizza
- Wheat flour (all-purpose or Tipo 00)
- Rice and chickpea flour:
- Water: Cold in summer and lukewarm in winter.
- Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
- Salt for flavor.
- olive oil
More holiday feelings with these recipes for Italian baked goods.
- Easy Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipe – Overnight
- How to Make Sourdough Focaccia
- Easy Sourdough Focaccia Recipe with Spelt
- Fluffy Caramelized Onion and Potato Focaccia with Sourdough
- How to make Sourdough Ciabatta Rolls
- Sourdough Ciabatta with Spelt
- Whole Grain Ciabatta with Sourdough
- Rustic Olive Ciabatta with Sourdough Overnight
And Italian cookies for dessert
Helpful tools – My recommendations
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- A wooden rolling pin*.
- Baking steel* or baking stone to make your bread, rolls and pizza nice and crispy.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A pizzacutter* for sweet knots, croissants, etc.
- A sharp bread knife*.
You can find more product recommendations here.
Similar recipes with sourdough
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Easy Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipe – Overnight
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Pinsa Romana – Crispy Sourdough Flatbread with Toppings
Ingredients
- 390 g wheat flour all purpose flour (or type 550)
- 300 g water
- 75 g Rice flour
- 25 g Chickpea flour
- 50 g sourdough starter
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1½ tsp. salt
Instructions
Day 1
- Grind the rice and chickpeas as finely as possible using a grain mill*. Mix the rice and chickpea flour with the wheat flour, salt, olive oil, water and sourdough starter to form a dough* and leave the dough to rest, covered.
- Stretch and fold the dough after 30 minutes and cover it up again. Repeat the process two to three times, every 30 minutes.
- Place the dough in the fridge overnight.
Day 2
- Stretch and fold the dough once or twice. This provides additional tension in the dough.
Day 3
- Remove the dough from the fridge, turn out onto a floured work surface and cut* into four equal pieces. Shape the dough into rounds and leave to rest on the work surface for an hour.
- Pre-heat the oven with a baking stone* to 250 °C (480 °F).
- Pull the first piece of dough apart to form an elongated pinsa, place on the baking stone* and bake for about 15 minutes.
- Then top the pinsa and serve.
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