Although the popularity of takeaway pizza in Rome did not reach the disastrous levels of New York’s postrecession dollar slice times, the city has seen an equal boom in new, innovative, and delicious pizza al taglio during the last 15 years. Due to pizzaiolos like Gabriele Bonci and Stefano Callegari–who have a lot in common with the ideals associated with New York’s revivalists of pizza (the utilization of natural and slow-burning fermentation, top-quality ingredients, freshly milled flour)–Rome’s version of pizza by the slice has seen a surge in popularity. Both Bonci and Callegari currently have outlets within their native United States, and this means that one of the greatest pizza-related innovations of the last few decades has made its way across the Atlantic and is called the trapezing.
Callegari invented Trapezing in his first pizza shop, 00100, in the Testaccio neighborhood in Rome. It is a mix of Roman pizza, Bianca, and sandwiches. Its name is a mix-up of the two words “pizza” and “tramezzino,” an Italian style of sandwich found in Italy which is made of white bread with no crust and divided into triangular pieces (because Italians also know triangles are more delicious). For his trapezing, Callegari bakes a puffy pizza, Bianca, cut into triangles, then slits to create a pocket and fills it with riffs of traditional Roman dishes like braised oxtails and meatballs.
In a recent game-day food discussion, I realized the pizza pockets would make the perfect snack for watching a game. The dough can be baked ahead of time and filled with many delicious tailgate fillings. Why would you want a soggy sub wrap when creating sandwiches from pizza dough is possible? I set out to recreate the charm of trapezing, the Platonic concept of pizza pockets.
The Dough
As I’ve mentioned, the trapezing dough is an alternative to pizza bianca. It is available at pizza bakeries and pizza al shop tagline (the Roman equivalent of a New York slice joint). Pizza from a bakery, such as the one made by Forno Campo de Fiori that inspired Kenji’s at-home, no-knead version, is typically baked in the oven deck of the bakery with long slices. This produces a thinner and crisper product than the doughier and puffier al taglio pizzas, which are baked in black steel pans known as Teglie, which are similar to the pans used to make pizzas of Sicilian style in the United States.
Trapizzino dough raises the bar on the crispiness of the al taglio pizza bianca. It must have enough structure and height to be cut open and filled with delicious fillings without breaking apart. However, it should be airy and light so it doesn’t become the weight of a gut bomb.
Callegari’s unique trapezing dough recipe has been leavened by a sourdough starter that is naturally sourced that makes delicious pizza but is not a simple, at-home, game-day-friendly recipe. To create a user-friendly version, I modified Kenji’s pizza bianca recipe, which receives its flavor by using immediate yeast and incorporates the techniques of cold fermentation and dough-folding employed by Bonci. I began by sizing the formula of Kenji to make a 13-by-18-inch pie baking pan.
I mix baking flour, salt, and instant yeast to ensure that the yeast and the salt are evenly distributed. Then I pour in the water, mixed in with dry ingredients using a wooden spoon till a lumpy dough forms and no dry flour is left. To ensure that the dough didn’t become too hard when baked into a thicker piece, I increased the amount of hydration (up by eighty percent) to increase its extensibility and give it an open crumb.
First Rise
After soaking the dough anddding water, I mix a few tablespoons of olive oil extra-virgin iWhile the top and bottom crusts will be sprayed with olive oil before baking, adding olive oil to the dough maensureshat the flavor isn’t limited to the surface but spreads throughout the thicker pizza bianca. The dough is put in a bowl oiled with oil, then covered with plastic wrap, and left to rise for an hour at room temperature.
After the initial rise is completed, the dough is turned onto a floured working surface before being folded to integrate air into the dough and reinforce the gluten network. This process also removes excess carbon dioxide released in the initial rise, which could hinder yeast activity in the later bulk fermentation.