Everybody is familiar with pizza, but have you ever tried pinsa?

The word comes from the Latin “pinsere,” which means “push dough by hand.”

And pinsa, like authentic Italian pizza, is a dough baked in a very hot stone oven until crispy, topped with different savory ingredients.

While the original pizza is said to originate from Naples in Italy, pinsa is a Roman invention. Pinsa Romana is made of a hand-pressed dough that has been an element of Roman artisan baking for over a hundred years.

But modern pinsa didn’t become popular in Italy until around 2001. In fact, pinsa was unknown outside Rome until a few years ago, when it started to appear outside Italy, popping up most recently in a few trendy eateries around Europe. But outside Italy, no one has scaled up pinsa for a larger crowd. Until now.

So, what’s the difference between pizza and pinsa?

Visually, pizza is often round while pinsa typically is more of an oval. But the biggest difference lies in the dough. Traditional pizza contains wheat flour, while pinsa dough uses a mix of grains: soy and rice flours as well as fermented spelt.

This makes pinsa more nutritious. It also makes the consistency different compared to traditional pizza crust. This is partly because of the rice flour.

Once crystallized, rice does not absorb water and when cooked it swells slightly, creating a crunchy surface, which is still the hallmark of Pinsa Romana today.

While pinsa clearly can be considered a close relative of pizza, it is often compared to the Italian flatbread focaccia as well. Fans of pinsa describe the delicacy in glowing terms such as “light as air” and “like biting into a cloud.”

But even if pinsa dough is particularly soft and fluffy in the cent re, it still features a crisp outside crust with a crunchy bite – a perfect combination.