The city and area around Rome is known for three types of pizzas that differ from what I think most of us think of as Italian style pizza, pizza napolitana. The first is the pizza in teglia or pizza al trancio, translating, respectively, as “pizza in a baking tray” and “pizza by the cut (or piece)”, which is almost universally a big rectangular pizza, cut, often with scissors, into smaller rectangles about the size of an old school photo print – 4″x6″. These are sometimes cut diagonally into two triangles to make picking them up and eating them easier. The dough is light and airy, and generally cooked to the point of being a little crunchy. It’s a street food eaten while walking, so it needs to not be floppy.

There is, as far as I know, only one place serving this style pizza here in town. There are, of course, other places that offer a rectangular pizza cut in pieces, but there’s a difference in the crust and toppings to the “Sicilian” or “grandma” style at a place like Pizza Paradiso, or the Calabrian style (which I haven’t visited yet) at Ipolitana. At Scrocchiarella, Cabrera 4896, Palermo, I found this little storefront counter with a variety of pizzas on display, already cut – classic in Rome. I ordered up a rectangle (well, more of a square, but okay) of sausage and one of mushroom.

The crust is dead-on. It’s got that crunchiness, and it’s well flavored with olive oil – almost like a focaccia, which is basically what it is. The toppings were good, but suffered from sitting in the display case. While the same approach is traditional in Rome, there, there’s usually a line at any decent place, and the pizzas are in constant rotation with fresh ones out of the oven. Here, I spent close to an hour, chatting with both the owner and then with a friend who wandered by, and only one other person even gave the place more than a glance. So the pizzas sit…. While they’re really tasty, you can just tell they’re a little dried out and reheated. If the place takes off, a Catch-22, I’d be in line. Oh, and excellent pistachio filled cannoli dipped into chocolate chips for dessert! (The tables are under red umbrellas, hence the weird coloring to the food photos.)

The second type, and sort of the third as well, is the pizza tonda. It’s one you’ve seen me review before – it’s a round pizza, with a cracker thin crust, some sort of sauce, either tomato, white, or pesto, and a scattering of toppings. Here in BA, I’ve noted, in particular…

And then, the third style, called a pinsa, which is basically a pizza tonda but with a crust made from a mix of wheat, soy, and rice flours (and this isn’t some new modern take on a gluten-light version, but an old traditional blend), and, it’s generally oval shaped rather than round. Here, we have three relatively new places that have opened up offering pinsas.

Totti, at Jorge Newbery 3001, Colegiales, is a fairly full on Italian restaurant, with pizza, pasta, and more. Still, their primary focus is the pinsa di roma, and a couple of us nabbed a table on a recent weekend afternoon to sample their wares. They make a point that their pizza dough is made from 85% wheat, 10% rice, and 5% soy flours. They didn’t, as best I recall, make any note about slow fermentation (the classic method), but I’ll assume that they do.

No question this pinsa looks good. It’s a little breadier than most pinsas I’ve encountered, almost mounded like a loaf. The tomato sauce is decent, the toppings are fine – we’d ordered their spicy ‘nduja sausage pizza – but most of what was on it was pepperoni, and just kind of okay pepperoni. There were little dabs of ‘nduja here and there, but they weren’t easy to find. Overall, it was just kind of an okay pizza, heavy on the crust. Also, given that they cook their pizzas in electronic deck ovens, we were just missing that bit of smokiness from a flame. The less said about their cannoli, the better – mediocre, crumbly shells, filled with plain or chocolate pastry cream that was just dripping out the ends. Service – indifferent and not particularly competent.

The longest running of the three, at least a couple of years old now, is La Zarpada, Carlos Calvo 581, in San Telmo. Here, they’re upfront about offering a sort of cross between the pinsa romana and the pizza porteña, or, Roman and Buenos Aires style. Basically, these are Argentine style pizzas just using the three grain, slow fermented dough. As such, not really a pinsa, just a local pizza with a better crust.

You can see, visually, there’s something of a weird mismatch here. Clearly two halves of different pizzas. What happened was that I, and one other person, each ordered half and half pizzas, and the pizzero screwed up and cross matched our different halves. When they were put up on the counter, the waiter realized it, and so they cut them both in half and gave us the mismatched halves of what we’d ordered.

Now, it’s not a bad pizza. I’d take it over many of the local pizzas or even napolitana pizzas I’ve had here. Good crust, great tomato sauce, generous amount of cheese (more than would be normally put on a pinsa, but more in line with local tastes), and good toppings. Overall, a nice choice, just not really pinsas. I suppose it fits the place’s name – zarpada is local slang for someone who is sort of audacious and off-beat, and sometimes used to refer to something that you find a bit daring.

My favorite of the three was Ammazza!, Honduras 5761, in Palermo. It’s a small place, very comfortable feeling, the owner is friendly and chatty. They offer a good number of both classic toppings and some creative combinations, and you can order any pizza by the half. Add to the positives on the place, he offered that they could either serve me both halves at once, or, if I wanted, make them one at a time so that they stayed hot. Nice touch. Even more to his credit, when chatting with him and I told him what I was doing, he listed off the other places in town that offered the various styles of Roman pizzas (and he nailed them all, and one, Totti, above, I didn’t know about) so that I could be more comprehensive.

I got one topped with bacon, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes, and one with pepperoni and a good zigzag of sriracha. Crust, crispy and thin, almost more like the tonda style, but made with the blend of flours, so it was extra crispy. For me, that’s dead on what a pinsa should be. Tasty sauce, really good toppings. Nothing about this I didn’t like.

There is one more place that supposedly offers tonda style pizzas, up in San Isidro, the northern ‘burbs. I did make the effort to go there, only to find them closed during their posted hours. That’s when I ended up going to Rocoto, that I reviewed in the previous post to this one. Whether I make it up there to try it again, we shall see – but only after calling to confirm that they’re open. And hey, if anyone knows of other spots offering these, or other “different” style pizzas, let me know!