811 S. Main St. Canandaigua
(585) 577 – 8008

A healthier, easy to digest pizza, baked to perfection.

Pizza Al Taglio

That’s what we’re all about – delivering delicious pizza, baked in-house and served with a smile. We use the finest flour, the freshest ingredients and artisanal meats and cheeses, that are tray baked to perfection by our chefs. The result: a traditional Roman pizza with a crisp base and a light, airy center-something we think is near impossible to beat! A pizza called al taglio. A beautiful contradiction: a crisp bottom crust topped by light, airy dough laced with delicate holes, like the inside a good loaf of bread.

About 200 years after the creation of Neapolitan pizza, this Roman style pizza made its debut.  Whereas large brick ovens were being used in Naples, Romans favored smaller, stone-lined deck ovens. This was due partly to the fact that natural gas was very expensive in Rome, making bakers opt for electric ovens instead. Because of the oven’s evenly heated rectangular shape, larger and longer pizzas made more sense than small round ones. Thus, the Roman style was born around the 1960s.

Roman pizza dough has a different type of structure. The crumb, affectionately known as the honeycomb, has micro-holes that make the pizza light and easily digestible. The dough has a thin to medium crust made up of a few simple ingredients: flour, water, yeast, olive oil, and salt. The addition of olive oil is a key difference from Neapolitan dough. It’s the essential ingredient that gives Roman pizza crust more weight, flavor, and a crispier crunch. Olive oil also helps to stretch the dough thinner.

This puffed honeycomb layer and this thin, crispy crust, are possible thanks to a dual- temperature oven that can direct different heat levels to the top and bottom of the pie. The pizza al taglio dough is extremely light, airy, its crust is crunchy, and tasting never burned. Comparing with the wood oven, with the electric oven it’s possible to avoid the risk of burning the dough (and, together with it, the risk of eating cancer-causing substances). The cooking temperature is more adjustable and the seasoned pizza tray keeps the dough better protected. Thanks to these factors, the dough cooks slower and more uniformly and the pizza is healthier and easier to digest.

What sets al taglio apart from its pizza siblings is the extra amount of water in the dough and the flour. Roman-style pies also use a more refined flour for the dough, which requires three separate fermentation stages. Neapolitan style, on the other hand, only requires one. It’s cold-fermented, meaning that you stick it in the fridge to rise. This combination results in some unique properties and facts about the dough. The chilled temps slow down the yeast’s job without halting the work of the enzymes that break down the gluten during fermentation. So basically, more gluten proteins are broken down, yielding a less dense, more airy dough by the time your dough ball achieves the desired rise. This can take up to 72-96 hours, which is a very long time in pizza years.

And the toppings, mmmmm. The toppings on the pizza can been applied before the crust goes into into the oven so they could cook and brown, or pizza al taglio can also resemble an open- faced sandwich, with fresh or uncooked items such as salad greens, soft cheeses, or cured meats piled on when the crust comes out of the oven. Roman pizzerias adorn it in a variety of ways and display it behind glass in deli-style cases, where it is sold by the length and cut with scissors (al taglio means “by the cut”).

Thanks to its versatility and more, pizza al taglio is also the one of the answers to the new challenge of the healthy eating trend.

NOW

HIRING

All positions available:
 
  • Prep Cook
  • Line Cook
  • Kitchen
  • Server
  • Bartender

Email your resume to info@cohopizzawine.com or call 585-577-8008.