Foodie Friday: Roma Ala Palla
EASTON, Md. – Not all pizza is made the same. There’s Neopolitan, Sicilian, New York, and Chicago style. And then, there’s Roman pizza.
Difference is in the Dough
Being a pizza lover, Foodie Friday host Hannah Cechini was surprised to meet a pie that they were unfamiliar with. But that’s exactly what Pizza Chef Todd Lindeberg serves up at Roma Ala Palla in Easton.
The difference is in the dough, leaving you with a mouthful you won’t soon forget. The ingredients and process are simple enough: flour, water, yeast, salt, and olive oil cold ferments in the fridge until it reaches a high hydration of 80%. Then, it proves for three days. But, the attention to detail is what makes it complexly delicious.
“It also allows for the crust to become super light and crusty. Crusty on the outside, and soft in the center,” said Chef Lindeberg. “After those three days, there’s millions of bubbles in here. We don’t want to destroy that. That’s the architecture that we want to lock in when we bake it… The sixth ingredient that people don’t talk about is time. The amount of time it takes for us to make this, most people don’t want to take three days to make a dough.”
Roman Pizza
Chef Lindeberg takes inspiration from the Romans, themselves.
“Most ovens, you inject steam in. We take the steam that’s captured in the actual dough – as it’s cooking, it’s staying in there – and put the temperature up really high,” said Chef Lindeberg. “When all the ovens are going at the same time, and that smell’s coming out, people will come by and say ‘I could smell this down the road!'”
And what those customers are met with is classic, Roman style pizza. An important step that you won’t typically find in most pizza joints, but will at Roma, is parbaking the dough.
“If you put toppings on a base that is that airy, it’s just going to sit flat,” explained Chef Lindeberg. “We try to lock into that structure by parbaking it. That structure will allow all the toppings to sit on top.”
“A painting”
After about five minutes in the oven, the dough comes back out for a nice spreading of sauce: simply Jersey tomatoes and salt. The key is to do it gently, and by hand. The cheese is fresh-grated daily, and graces the pie in two different forms: low moisture skim mozzarella for the base, and generous pulls of fresh mozzarella, topped with basil leaves.
“You can really feel where the bubbles are, and protect them, and not pop them,” said Chef Lindeberg as he and Hannah spread the sauce and the toppings. “There is a painting that goes on every time. You want the person to open up the box and be like, ‘Wow!””
“Some of the best pizza I’ve had in a really long time,”
And wowed we were. “This is some of the best pizza I’ve had in a really long time, and I’m not just saying that,” Hannah said after the first bite. “The bite on the dough is really satisfying. It’s got a really nice, crispy bottom to it. But, on the inside, it’s just so moist. The air bubbles are big and developed, which creates a really lovely texture.”
And of the tomato sauce, “it does have that little bit of acidity to it. But, at the same time, there’s that natural sweetness that comes from the tomatoes,” Hannah said. “If you know anything about Jersey tomatoes – I might be a little biased – but there’s the best that you can get, in my opinion.”
And if you’ve ever wanted to eat like true Italians, without leaving Delmarva, Foodie Photog Mike says Roma is the place to be.
“[The pizza has] got a good crisp on the bottom,” he said. “That cheese is perfectly melty, but there’s almost no oil in there. It’s just so nicely hydrated… I’ve never been to Rome, but at least I’ve eaten like I have.”
Roma Ala Palla
Roma Ala Palla is located at 2a South West Street, Easton, Md. You can call them at 410-770-9701. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.
