Pizzeria Bianco's Rosa Pizza

I lived in Phoenix for six years before I finally made my way to Pizzeria Bianco. I had heard about it, read about it in magazines. But it took a long time to finally get around to going there. I am a planner by nature so I read lots of reviews and studied out how to have the best experience there. If you have never been to Pizzera Bianco this might seem a little excessive. But Pizzeria Bianco is so renown you can count on a three hour wait, or more. The owner Chris Bianco takes such pride in his work that he doesn't want his food to be mass produced so there are only about 10 tables in the restaurant.


In truth when reading the reviews the only negative ones were about the wait.  No one had anything bad to say about the food.  When reading the reviews the pizza that everyone said you had to try was was the rosa pizza.  So when we got there we decided that the four of us were going to order three pizzas and the rosa was going to be one of them.  It did not dissapoint.  The rosa was my favorite of the evening.  At home I couldn't stop thinking of it.  


I thought that surely someone must have made a knock off of it and posted the recipe.  I searched the internet but as it turns out no knock off was necessary.  The owner Chris Bianco had graciously given the recipe.  After all, Bianco tells us himself ''There's no mystery to my pizza, Sicilian oregano, organic flour, San Marzano tomatoes, purified water, mozzarella I learned to make at Mike's Deli in the Bronx, sea salt, fresh yeast cake and a little bit of yesterday's dough. In the end great pizza, like anything else, is all about balance. It's that simple.''  No super secret recipe to hide from the world, just quality ingreadients and quality technique.


Unless you have a brick oven at home your pizza will not be as good as Bianco's but if you are not in Phoenix or you don't have 3-4 hours to wait in line this will tide you over until you can get there.   And if you are thinking about going please give me a call.  I would love to join you.


Pizzeria Bianco's Rosa Pizza
Recipe source The Washington Post


For the dough
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (105 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons (1/4-ounce packet) active dry instant yeast
3 3/4 cups flour, plus more for the work surfaces
1 1/2  teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Topping
5 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (a generous 1 cup)
1/2 large red onion, thinly shaved (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup roasted unsalted pistachio nuts, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the yeast at water in a small (non-metalic) bowl.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile add flour, salt, and olive oil to a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  After the yeast becomes bubbly add it to the mixing bowl and knead for 8 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic.  Lightly coat a large bowl with olive oil.  Transfer dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size (about an hour).  Punch down dough and   knead for just a minute.  Divide dough into two equal portions, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise again for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 450 with a baking stone in it.  The preheated baking stone is the closest thing you are going to get to a brick oven.  Roll out one of the dough portions.  Because I don't have a pizza peel to transfer my pizza I put the rolled out dough on the pizza stone and quickly add my toppings.  If you are lucky enough to have a pizza peel feel free to use it.  Top with half the cheese, red onion, pistachios, and rosemary.  Drizzle on 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Do the same with the other half of the dough.  Bake in the 450 oven for 10 minutes. Pin It