Marinella, Pizza su Misura in Rome, Italy

Posted by Rowena Dumlao Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 7/05/2018

Marinella, Pizza su Misura in Rome, Italy

When the pizza dough is made with a mixture of selected flours, has risen for 96 hours and retains a high level of hydration, as supervised and consulted by one of Rome's most important master pizza chef, Angelo Iezzi, the finished product comes out highly digestible and light. Rome can be dotted with pizzerias but it's not easy to find one that serves pizzas with good digestibility. Remember that a good pizza doesn't depend only on what are on top of it. What makes it good is when you still feel light after eating it and when you digest it fast. The secret is always on the rising of the dough and the quality of the ingredients of the dough and toppings. After eating a good number of slices of pizza at Marinella, I can assure you that the pizzeria knows what quality and digestibility mean.  

The flours used by Marinella come from Molino Iaquone, a family-owned flour mill within the region of Lazio (where Rome is) that has been producing flours of optimum quality for the past 65 years. The mixture that's carefully chosen by Angelo Iezzi is 00 (Double Zero) type of Italian and European grano tenero (soft wheat), soy, semola of durum wheat and sourdough. The presence of a lower quantity of carbohydrates with soft wheat flour, which is usually present in the market, and a higher percentage of proteins (15% at the origin) make it possible to create a dough with greater digestibility, lightness and flavor.

There are five types of pizzas that can be found at Marinella, each corresponding to a different price. Everything is made with the same dough but with varied combinations of the toppings used. The ingredients used are fresh, and high quality with a right balance between simplicity and refinement.   

The pizzas, uniformly sliced at 10x15 cm. come in these five varieties:  
Le Semplici / Simple (€1.50) which are white or red pizzas. 
Le Leggere / Light (€1.40) which contains little or no mozzarella like marinara, potatoes and rosemary, red with mushrooms and crostini with vegetables.
 Le Classiche / Classics (€1.70) which are classic pizzas such as margherita, crostini with ham or marinated aubergines, stuffed with mortadella or seasonal vegetables. 
Le Gustose / Tasty (€2.00) are pizzas that are mostly inspired by regional recipes. From the opening of Marinella, pizzas with Roman flavors are in the menu: carbonara, amatriciana, zucchini flowers with anchovies and cacio e pepe.
 Le Speciali / Specials (€2.50) are pizzas that are focused on seasonality of products, such as pizza stuffed with asparagus frittata.  

In the menu board, the ingredients are divided into groups (vegetables, meat, dairy products, fish) to facilitate the choice of each combination according to personal preferences and needs.  

Marinella is a small pizzeria in the Prati district of Rome, in the small road in front of Mercato Rionale of Via Cola di Rienzo (close to the Vatican). Its interior space can accommodate 12 but it has an immense two-level kitchen at the back filled with pizza-specified Castelli ovens and temperature-controlled storage equipment for the long levitation of the dough. When asked why the allocation of spaces is done in that way, Constantino's reply sums up what Marinella is about in one sentence: You need that much space if you want to make seriously good pizza.  

Marinella was conceptualized by Barbara Domenici and Constantino Popa Louis, both experts of the field and great pizza lovers along with financial and managerial partners Agostino Di Filippo and Roberto Perego.