Dough
80%
Hydration
Very wet — wetter than Sicilian, drier than focaccia. The high water plus a long ferment is what opens the crumb into big, glassy holes. Strong bread flour, handled with wet hands.
Style guide · Pizza al Taglio
Pizza al Taglio.
Rome's bakery pizza. Baked in long metal trays, sold by the cut and weighed by the gram. The defining feature is the crumb: a very wet, long-fermented dough that bakes up airy, glassy, and honeycombed — closer to great bread than to a pizzeria pie.
01 · History
From the Roman forno to Bonci's counter.
Pizza al taglio — literally "by the cut" — grew up in Roman bakeries, not pizzerias. Sold from the same counters as bread, in long rectangular trays (teglie), cut to order with scissors and priced by weight rather than by the slice.
The technique is a baker's technique. A very wet dough, often built on a biga (a stiff pre-ferment), proofed long and cold to develop flavor and a strong, extensible gluten network. Handled as gently as possible so the gas survives into the bake.
The two everyday icons are bianca (just oil and salt, the bread itself) and rossa (a bare crushed-tomato top, no cheese). Gabriele Bonci's Pizzarium pushed it further in the 2000s — hydration past 80%, multi-day ferments, and elaborate squares topped after the bake. The crumb is always the point: tall, open, and shatteringly crisp on the bottom.
By the rules
Very high hydration (~80%) bread-flour dough, built on a biga and proofed long and cold — the calculator defaults to the biga, the traditional Roman method. Stretched gently into an oiled rectangular tray, proofed in the pan, then par-baked hot before topping. Toppings stay light; many (mortadella, fresh greens) go on after the bake. Cut into rectangles to serve.
02 · Defining traits
Per pan
800g
Half-sheet
Stretches to fill a standard 13×18 half-sheet (or a long teglia). Proof in the oiled pan until light and bubbly, then stretch the last bit gently — don't knock the gas out.
Ferment
48 hr
Cold
A long cold ferment is the flavor and the texture. 24 hours works; 48 is the target. The dough should be slack, bubbly, and aromatic before it ever sees the pan.
03 · Classic recipes
04 · Make it
One click into the calculator
Make an al taglio dough.
Opens the dough calculator with Pizza al Taglio pre-selected. Pick your pan dimensions and a long cold ferment; we'll handle the high-hydration math and the in-pan proof timing.
Open the dough calculator→
Pair with
The topping calculator opens with pizza rossa preconfigured — crushed San Marzano, olive oil, and oregano over a bare crust.
Open the topping calculator→
Equipment
Three questions on budget, space, and how often you bake — we'll recommend a curated equipment build to get you started.
Open the equipment quiz→