Pizza romana originated in bread bakeries as a humble snack, served bianca (plain) or red with tomato sauce, said Pierluigi Roscioli, the third-generation baker behind Antico Forno Roscioli, and part of the family that’s given us the celebrated Salumeria Roscioli. In the 1960s and ’70s, immigrants from Abruzzo, he said, brought their pizza in teglia (pizza in an iron pan) to the Italian capital, and the two lineages merged. Mr. Roscioli went on to transform pizza bianca into Rome’s most coveted carb unit, with long fermentations of dough and fanatical attention to detail. In 2003, the star pizzaiolo Gabriele Bonci sparked his own movement when he opened Pizzarium with thick sourdough crusts and toppings like vanilla-scented potatoes.
Now a “Roman pizza 3.0” generation is shaking things up. And so, during a recent stay in Rome, I succumbed to a delicious carb-on-carb overload in pursuit of the city’s most exciting pizza developments.
“Today, Rome’s best pizza al taglio isn’t just about a beautiful counter display,” said Sara Bonamini, the co-founder of Tulipane bakery and the former editor of Gambero Rosso’s Pizzerie d’Italia guide. “It’s about taking something simple and making it with tremendous care, so that every piece carries a story, a heritage.”