It’s spring, and the first of the zucc’s are hitting the markets, and they’re making me hungry. My idea for today’s lunch – pinsa romana with zucchini and goats’ cheese. Before moving to Italy, I had never heard of pinsa romana, a doughy and friable alternative to pizza. Wonderfully crunchy on the outside and soft of the inside, I now demolish this delicious carb regularly.
The original pinsa recipe comes from an ancient product, allegedly made among rural populations living outside the walls of Rome using a blend of cereals, salt and herbs. The signature pinsa shape is oval with uneven, undulating edges, giving the impression (even the supermarket variety) that it has been worked by age old, artisan hands. Indeed, the word “pinsa” comes from the Latin pinsere, in Italian to stretch and to spread. If you have ever tried to tug a “hand wash only” garment back into shape after it’s been through the washing machine, you’ll have an idea of the knobbly, irregular appearance of pinsa.
I’d like to say, that I make the pinsa by hand but I don’t. Instead, I buy the ready-made bases. Here in Italy, you can easily pick-up hand rolled, wood-fire oven versions with that yeasty, fresh fragrance. If you can’t find pinsa, regular pizza bases would work as a sub. As a guide, the pinsa dough I use is 500g, divided into 2 bases of roughly 15 cm x 30cm, which feeds 3-4 hungry adults. Calulate your toppings based on the measurements of whatever base you are using.
To get started with this recipe, brush the base with a mixture of olive oil, garlic, and herbs. In the absence of a tomato sauce topping, this seasoned oil helps to keep the pinsa supremely soft and tasty from the bottom up. Next, comes a layer of sliced zucchini, followed by dollops of soft goats’ cheese. As the cheese melts, it puddles offering a tasty compliment to the veg, and a contrasting texture too. For a salty element, I add anchovies, but a spinkling of pancetta cubes or black olives would work well as a sub.
Bake the pinsa on the lowest shelf of a roaring hot oven. If you find that the top is cooking too fast and the bottom appears underdone, try putting the baking tray directly on the oven floor. Alternatively, if your oven has a bottom grill setting, switch it to that and give the pinsa a hot blast from below. Serve piping hot with an unfussy, green salad.
Zucchini and Goats’ Cheese Pinsa ~ Pinsa con Zucchine e Formaggio di Capra
- 2 pinsa or pizza bases
- olive oil
- 2 garlic, crushed
- small handful of herbs such as rosemary, thyme
- 2 zucchini, thinly sliced
- anchovies in oil, drained and cut into small pieces
- 140g soft goats’cheese
Preheat the oven to a roaring 250 degrees. Place the pinsa bases on a tray lined with parchment paper. Use a mortar and pestle to combine the olive oil, garlic and herbs then, spread this mix over the pinsa bases. Next, layer sliced zuccchini, and dot the anchovies here and there. Drop smallish blobs of soft goats’ cheese over the top. On the lowest shelf in the oven, bake for around 10mins or until the edges are golden brown and the underside is cooked. Drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and serve piping hot.
