Pizza al Taglio

[noomi]

Hi, venturing into pizza making business and opting for Roman style pizza because of the healthiness overall and the taste - not including the beautiful presentation I have seen all over the internet.  I wanted to see if anyone knew where I can get custom blue pan steel of 8"x12" made?

Thanks in advance!

[amolapizza]

Don't know where you could buy such small pans in the US, but want to offer a thought.

Wouldn't that be a really small pan to be used in a commercial setting, or do you want to cook individual pizza for each customer?  Normally in Rome the pizza in teglia is baked in bigger pans, think something like 12x16 or even bigger.  I've also seen less wide ones like maybe 8x16, basically allowing to bake two different ones in the same place as a big one.

It's normally cut into several pieces and sold like that, or the piece is reheated just before being given to the customer.  Reheating it gives it a nice extra crunch.

In Rome some also do what they call a pizza alla pala, which is basically the same (a thicker squarish large pizza) but baked directly on the deck without using a pan.  Also very nice, but maybe slightly more difficult than the pizza in teglia.

The reason I write the above is that it seems to me that using such small pans you'll increase your work load significantly and also the inventory needed for the pans themselves.

[noomi]

I was hoping to offer this choice size for delivery.  I read an article from https://p.zakitchen.com/what-is-roman-style-pizza/   "At P.Za Kitchen we had our pans custom made to be able to serve personal sized pizzas perfect for delivery. Our personal pizzas are 8×12 inches."

I thought it might be a good idea since we want to offer delivery services, too.

[amolapizza]

I don't know if it's a good idea or not, the customer would have to decide

I do however think that you risk creating more work for yourself.  Don't know what oven you plan to use nor how big it is.  I'd chose pan sizes depending on the oven size so that you can maximize the use of the oven.  The thing about making small individual pans is that if you halve the size, you'll need double the amount of dough balls (and the logistics that implies), and you'll have the double amount of pizza to extend, top and bake.  You'll also probably be giving the customer more cornicione instead of toppings

IMO, one nice aspect about pizza al taglio is that you can buy several pieces with different toppings, pizza al taglio means cut pizza.

Also have a look at: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pizza+alla+pala&iax=images&ia=images  Pizza alla pala is basically the same thing, the same high hydration dough, extended in a similar way, topped in the same way, and also cut into square pieces.  How it differs is in the fact that it's baked without a pan, and possibly a bit more crispy on the bottom.  It's slightly more difficult technically, but once you have the technique down for making a pizza in teglia, the alla pala variant really isn't much more difficult at all.  Selling this style would allow you to make whatever size you want to without being restricted to pan sizes.

I've also seen places in Rome that use full size pans and pans that are full length and half width.  I assume this is to maximize the oven space and still be able to bake smaller pizza for topping combinations that don't sell as fast as the popular ones.

[Yael]

noomi,

I agree with Jack about the size of the pan. If you plan to open a pizza "al taglio" shop, you should be cutting the pizza, but most important: you might want to give yourself less work. Sometimes when we look at popular dishes and we want to reproduce them, we forget that there's a big chance that the original dish was the result of a simplification rather than a complication. In this case, pizza "al taglio" allows you to make many flavors in only one pan, it's simpler than using many pans.

Having said all that, I have a friend (in France), he opened a pizza concept where he sells individual pizza in teglia. Maybe you can have a look https://www.facebook.com/DonMadoniaPizza/.

[noomi]

Thank you both for your insight!!  This gives me a lot to consider.